AVP’s Investment in GrayMatter Robotics

Advance Venture Partners
Advance Venture Partners
4 min readJun 21, 2024

We are at the top of the first inning of a dramatic revolution across physical industries ranging from manufacturing and agriculture to healthcare and hospitality as AI-powered robotics platforms rise to the level of technological capability to augment large swaths of human labor. Historically, robotics platforms have been limited to simple, repetitive processes in a few industries given their inability to react to real-time changes in environment, high process or product variability, and other factors common in complex manufacturing. However, robotics technology, driven by advancements in processing power, the ability to consume, store, and analyze large datasets, and the exponential advancements of generative AI, has reached the point where robotics platforms can complete high-complexity, high-variability tasks at a level of speed, accuracy, and quality at the same or better level than human labor. Combined with declining costs and improving functionality of available hardware, robotics solutions are finally economically viable for businesses, paving the way for mass adoption.

As we pursue this thesis, we are delighted to announce our next investment: Advance Venture Partners (“AVP”) is investing in the Series B financing of GrayMatter Robotics, backing co-founders Ariyan Kabir, Brual Shah, and SK Gupta as they build robotics solutions capable of performing complex, often hazardous manufacturing tasks starting with surface finishings and treatments including sanding, polish, buffing, and spraying.

In our first meeting with Ariyan, Brual, and SK, we immediately recognized that they not only possess the advanced technical knowledge to build a transformational robotics company, but they also exhibit the business mindset to design a platform that fits customers’ needs and generates attractive economics for all stakeholders, including GrayMatter. While at the University of Southern California’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing, Ariyan and Brual recognized the opportunity to build AI-powered robotics platforms to empower the manufacturing industry and saw the ubiquitous tasks of surface finishings and treatments as the prime starting point. Surface finishings and treatments is a crucial step in the manufacturing process for most items in the $2.5 trillion U.S. manufacturing industry ranging from guitars and football helmets to airplanes and boats, and this workforce is one of many experiencing severe labor shortages given the hazardous and demanding nature of the role and extensive training required — these are truly backbreaking and dangerous roles that younger generations do not view as attractive career opportunities.

With this massive industry-agnostic problem in mind, the GrayMatter team has built a full-stack, AI-enabled solution to automate surface finishings and treatments, starting with sanding, buffing, grinding, and polishing. The Company’s platform overcomes the primary issue with robotics platforms to date — the inability to complete complex tasks in dynamic, changing environments at the same throughput and quality as humans. GrayMatter’s robots can autonomously handle these complex tasks in real-time, even on objects that the system hasn’t seen yet. As a result, customers benefit from a multi-faceted return-on-investment by leveraging GrayMatter. The robots can work 2–4x faster than manual operations and can be trained on tasks in less than a day that would take six months of training for a human, reducing the direct and indirect costs of human labor (wages, hiring, training, worker’s compensation) while also increasing customer revenue by improving process throughput, reducing backlogs, and creating higher quality outputs that require less rework and scrapping. The robots also help address sustainability goals by enabling customers to save 30%+ on consumables spend, such as sandpaper and paint, compared to manual operations. Combined with the critical labor shortage in many industries, the tangible ROI recognized by customers makes GrayMatter a no-brainer solution.

On top of its best-in-class technology and clear product-market fit, GrayMatter has most importantly demonstrated the ability to generate attractive economics for itself via a robotics-as-a-service (“RaaS”) business model. Too many robotics companies have developed great technology but have been unable to build compelling business models that can scale. Ariyan and Brual understood the need to generate strong economics early for GrayMatter and its customers, which is why the Company has already built an impressive customer list in industries including aerospace and defense, shipbuilding, specialty vehicles, recreation and consumer products, and general manufacturing; this customer base will only continue to grow as the Company adds product capabilities over time.

We believe technological advancements and widely felt labor market dynamics have unlocked the opportunity for mass adoption of robotics platforms across industries. The AVP team is excited to back GrayMatter Robotics and partner with Ariyan, Brual, and SK as they give manufacturers the AI-powered robotics solutions to address their long-term automation needs in the face of critical labor gaps.

Please visit the websites for GrayMatter Robotics or AVP for more information. Don’t hesitate to reach out to the AVP team if you’d like to discuss our robotics thesis in more depth!

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Advance Venture Partners
Advance Venture Partners

Published in Advance Venture Partners

Insights, deal announcements, and other writing from the Advance Venture Partners team.

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