1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Alain le Loux of Cottonwood Technology Fund (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: We actually work only with IT and IT-enabled companies. We don’t do energy. We don’t do biotech. We don’t do cleantech. Where we overlap is in the robotics area mostly.

If you have stuff going on in healthcare IT or bioinformatics, that would be of interest to us. It sounds like robotics is the most interesting area for us to explore in this conversation.

Talk to me about what kinds of robotics companies have you invested in, and what do they do. What trends are you seeing?

Alain le Loux: We invested in the Netherlands in the Robird company. It’s a robotic bird with flapping wings. You can use that to get rid of other birds at airports or in agriculture.

It’s like a wildlife management solution. It looks like a falcon, but it’s a robot. You don’t see any difference. In the DNA of a normal bird, they are afraid of predators. That’s how it works. It’s a fairly effective bird control solution.

Sramana Mitra: Why is that important?

Alain le Loux: For example, bird strikes in airports are really dangerous for not only the airport but also for the airplane itself. It can damage the engine. It will cost $5 million to repair. Secondly, it also increases the safety of the passengers. Bird control at airports is really important. 

Sramana Mitra: How did this company come about? How did you find this company? 

Alain le Loux: Many companies knock on our door. We have a deal flow of more than 1,000 pitches a year. Most VCs look for traction and revenue. We decide to invest with no revenue because of the huge potential in the market.

Sramana Mitra: This is going to market in Europe or America?

Alain le Loux: Both. We invested at the end of 2015. We have customers in New York and the UK. We have customers in Canada. We’re exploring the markets in China, the Middle East, and India, mostly in airports but also in agriculture. It’s a real robotics company.

Sramana Mitra: It’s very unique and has a cool application. It sounds like it’s solving a real problem with real budgets. It’s very interesting. Any other robotics company that you’ve invested in that are worth talking about?

Alain le Loux: We invested in the US in Sarcos Robotics. They made an exoskeleton which can be used by industry workers to give them the power of a robot. It can be human-controlled as well. You use the power of the robot but you also use the brain of the human. For most robots, you have to pre-program and think about what kind of things to do.

Sramana Mitra: What application areas have you gone to market with this company?

Alain le Loux: We target industry workers in factories to give them more power. It’s like an exoskeleton.

Sramana Mitra: It’s like lifting and moving stuff. 

Alain le Loux: Yes, they can easily lift stuff of about 1,000 pounds.

Sramana Mitra: How did you find this company?

Alain le Loux: They came to us. Some corporates knocked on our door.

Sramana Mitra: What is the source of the technology? Is it a university technology or did it come out of a corporate lab?

Alain le Loux: It’s a university technology. Sarcos Robotics was already existing for a decade, but they needed more money to create the product. Together with three corporates, we put in the first $10 million. We recently raised $30 million B round.

Sramana Mitra: You have thousands of deal flow. How much of that deal flow is robotics? What are the trends?

Alain le Loux: I don’t see a lot of robotics companies. Maybe 20 per year out of a thousand. I see more deal flow in materials and clean energy. I see lots of software platforms in robotics, which you can use for an autonomous drive or fly. What I see is, there are a lot of robotic combinations on land. Then there is a trend of robots in water.

This segment is part 2 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Alain le Loux of Cottonwood Technology Fund
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