Robotics firm BOW lands £4m from Northern Gritstone-led group | Money News

A producer of robotics software spun out of the University of Sheffield will this week unveil a multimillion-pound fundraising led by the investment vehicle chaired by the former Treasury minister Lord O’Neill.

Sky News understands that BOW – which stands for Bettering Our Worlds – will announce on Tuesday a £4m seed round led by Northern Gritstone.

Finance Yorkshire and NPIF II – Praeture Equity Finance, which is part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II, are also investing in BOW.

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The company provides a software platform which removes the need for specialist robotics programming skills and bridges gaps between different robotics systems.

It is aiming to capitalise on a fast-growing global robotics market which is estimated to be worth $260bn by 2030.

BOW announced in November that Liz Upton, a co-founder of the newly listed technology company Raspberry-Pi, had become its chair – a sign of its ambition.

“Northern Gritstone is delighted to support BOW’s team, who once again demonstrate that world-leading technology businesses are being created in the North of England,” said Duncan Johnson, CEO of Northern Gritstone.

“BOW’s groundbreaking robotics platform is a perfect example of innovation in the region born out of the University of Sheffield’s world-class academic research.”

Nick Thompson, BOW’s chief executive, said: “The robotics market is growing fast, but that growth would be exponentially higher if the tremendous cost and complexity of programming robots were reduced.”

“Robotics has an almost unlimited potential to help humanity solve global challenges, but the world simply can’t afford to wait for robotics to standardise around a single operating system and coding language.

Northern Gritstone has now made 30 investments in early-stage businesses spun out of leading research universities across the north of England.