Investing in the next era of computing. For more frequent tweets follow founding partners @haynes_dave and @prajahalme
Helsinki | London | Paris
Joined March 2022
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We counted 400+ robotics rounds last quarter, then wrote down what we think they mean.
Field Notes, issue one: our new quarterly on robotics and physical-AI capital. Two European robotics companies became unicorns on a Series A.
fieldnotes.fov.ventures
The people who set up this robot route don't work in IT.
Warehouse staff at Voi's Poznań site gave a Levtek robot a live route in under 30 minutes. No facility integration, no consultants.
The robots that spread are the ones a floor team can deploy.
linkedin.com/posts/levtek_ai…
There's no GPS under Helsinki. Distance Technologies drove a vehicle down there anyway.
The route shows up on the windshield, at real depth, locked to the tunnel ahead. The driver never looks down.
AI only helps if a human can act on it.
linkedin.com/posts/distance-…
Per head, the North's densest robotics scene is in Estonia. Denmark, the one everyone names first, comes second.
Found with @specterhq.
Building physical AI anywhere in Europe? Investor 1:1s, Helsinki, 16 Nov. Apply by 19 Oct.
minusone.fov.ventures/apply/
Europe has a new robotics unicorn. The employees got paid first.
RobCo passed $1B, partly via a secondary for long-standing staff. That money becomes the next angel cheques and founding teams. Universal Robots did it for Odense.
rob.co/en-us/resources/news/…
Beam's positive user feedback went from ~70% to ~90%. ai-coustics was part of how they got there.
Live interpretation for frontline workers in busy offices. Audio was the hard part.
"On telephony, it was night and day." Joel Holmes, Beam
ai-coustics.com/blog/beam-re…
Meet ten physical AI investors in one afternoon. No Slush ticket needed.
Helsinki, 16 Nov. Ten European robotics founders, eight 1:1s each, then dinner with all ten investors.
Apps close 19 Oct. Know a founder who fits? Send them this.
minusone.fov.ventures/apply/
"Wireless power is one of the last unsolved infrastructure layers in autonomy." Harri Santamala, Willo CEO
Willo is working on wireless power at any position in a room. New: joint research with Chiba University in Japan.
FOV is an investor.
willo.tech/press-release/wil…
$200 billion market. 1.8 billion people with presbyopia by 2050.
The standard fix is a static lens with zones you move your head to find. IXI's lenses refocus themselves.
SILMO Paris opens today. Optiswiss booth 6M142.
ixieyewear.com
Bits & Pretzels gave physical AI its own track this year. Right call.
Germany runs 449 industrial robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers, third in the world behind South Korea and Singapore.
Dave Haynes is there all three days, 28-30 Sep. Find him and say servus.
Machine one is a demo. Machine one thousand is a business.
Sensible 4 retrofits autonomy onto fleets a customer already owns. Spogen makes each deployment's knowledge travel to the next.
The hard problem has moved from capability to deployment.
spogen.ai/blog/sensible4-spo…
A Tokyo-listed company just signed with a Helsinki startup founded in 2023.
Morpho (TSE: 3653) has built imaging AI since 2004. Now an MOU with Distance Technologies on spatial computing for defence.
One reads the world. The other shows it.
distance.tech/news/morpho-an…
Scaling hardtech is as much a capital-structuring problem as an engineering one.
Dave's on a panel about this at Venture Café London's HardTech Apéro, 1 Oct.
Equity for the bet, grants for the R&D risk, debt for the build-out.
community.venturecafelondon.…
Games are the training ground for physical intelligence long before the robot ever moves.
Nunu's benchmarks are the infrastructure layer this transition needs. Good to be on this cap table.
linkedin.com/posts/jan-schny…
Slush is a numbers game. We build the opposite for physical AI founders.
10 founders. 10 investors. 80 ten-minute meetings before Slush even opens.
Apps close 19 Oct.
minusone.fov.ventures/apply/
Minus One is back, for the fourth year.
300+ GPs and LPs in one Helsinki room on Monday 16 November, the night before Slush Investor Day. No agenda, no pitches, just drinks.
We curate the room, so request your spot. Book your Monday flights early. luma.com/g2b7lk3s
Autonomy is in Malmö next Monday. Petri is going.
One day on robotics and physical AI, where research stops being research.
That evening Levtek opens their new facility: agentic workflows closing the loop on real hardware, plus the Levkart to drive. luma.com/0y8s2dgv
European deal count just hit a six-year low. The money went up.
€44.1B across 1,740 deals in H1. AI took 60.3%, its first time past half in a half-year.
Fewer companies, bigger cheques. A record half-year and a harder seed round are the same market. viewpoints.fov.ventures/p/eu…
Dilution is our product. Which is why we care what it buys.
Founders make decisions about contracts, equipment and customers that quietly decide what finance they can attract later. Almost nobody says so at the time.
Tangible Finance on debt-readiness: viewpoints.fov.ventures/p/yo…
SoftBank keeps shopping for robotics in Europe.
ABB's robotics business: $5.4bn, agreed last year. Now talks for a majority stake in 1X, the humanoid maker founded in Norway.
Europe: 21% of AI research, 6% of AI venture funding.
The gap is the opportunity.
