Competition during North America’s largest automation and robotics showcase, June 6-9, will spotlight cutting-edge technologies driving innovations

ANN ARBOR, Michigan - May 25, 2022. Ten cutting-edge startups will compete for a $10,000 prize in "The Cowen Startup Challenge: Automate to Outperform" June 7 at the Automate 2022 Show and Conference, North America's largest automation and robotics showcase. Sponsored this year by Cowen, a multinational, independent investment bank and financial services company competition spotlights exciting and innovative entrepreneurs and their young companies, the competition will honor young companies and their entrepreneurs driving innovations in robotics, machine vision, artificial intelligence and other automation technologies.

The 10 finalists—all of which launched under five years ago and have raised less than $5 million since creation—will each pitch their technology solution to a panel of industry expert judges during the June 7 finals. As finalists, they have already won a complimentary exhibit space at Automate to engage with the expected 20,000 attendees.

"Our startup challenge at Automate has grown to be a favorite event, where the latest innovations showcase where automation is heading today," said Alex Shikany, vice president of membership and business intelligence at the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), which organizes Automate. "As we've seen from previous winners such as Soft Robotics, Innovative Mechatronic Systems B.V. and Apellix, each of these startups show great promise, and while only one will win the $10,000, they will all come away from Automate with new contacts and potential customers eager to take advantage of their offerings."

Cowen Startup Challenge Finalists Share Benefits of Startups and Automation Today

"Startups are important for manufacturing as they constantly challenge the status quo," said Peter Abeles, the founder of finalist NINOX 360. "Manufacturing is a capital-intensive industry due to complex machinery and long development time. Startups can present new and unique ways to tackle problems, offering the opportunity to rapidly test and iterate upon them."

"We are excited to be a part of the largest robotics and automation show in the US," said Matthew Bilsky, PhD, founder of FLX Solutions. "As a startup, we are developing the next generation of robotics hardware and this competition allows us a forum to share it with the community."

Finalists include:

Aivero (Booth #4353), is a Scandinavian startup founded in 2017 with a mission to democratize automation by simplifying robotic control so that anyone can deploy and operate them. No more code, programming, or complex path planning—vision-guided robotics automates this too.

Covision Quality (Booth #4453), which automates and scales visual inspection with unsupervised machine learning technology. The software is installed in production lines within 1 hour and reduces pseudo scrap rates by up to 90%.

FLX Solutions (Booth #4354), whose first product is a patented 1" snake-like robot that is able to fit into spaces humans cannot easily access to inspect, map, and then perform any required maintenance.

INNOCISE GmbH (Booth #4454), which produces special polymers capable of handling components from several meters to less than 10 microns with the highest precision and maximum efficiency, based on Gecomer® Technology. Inspired by the so-called Gecko effect, picking and placing of the component works without external energy and without any residues - by using van der Waals interactions.

InOrbit (Booth #4355), the leading provider of SaaS RobOps - DevOps for robotics. InOrbit offers a secure, scalable, cloud-based robot management and analytics platform that enables robotics companies and their customers to develop, deploy and operate smart robots at global scale. Its platform is designed to seamlessly integrate with your existing programs and other services, bringing RobOps to scale.

Neurocle Inc. (Booth #4455), a leading and innovative company that incorporates deep learning technology into the field of computer vision. Its software, Neuro-T, Neuro-X, Neuro-R, provides excellent usability with automated data management and modeling process.

NINOX 360 (Booth #4356), offers the benefits of automation with minimal infrastructure with its poka-yoke (a.k.a. error proofing) systems and vision-based inspections.

Quotebeam Inc. (Booth #4456), a marketplace for automation parts, quotes, and collaboration.

Scalable Robotics Inc. (Booth #4357), an industrial robotics startup with human-robot interaction techniques that enable people who know their process to intuitively show a robot what needs to be done, and its scalable system automatically creates a robust and high-quality program.

Voaige (Booth #4457), which is building re-programmable Operating AI for robotic arms to automate complex tasks in logistics and manufacturing.

About Association for Advancing Automation (A3)
The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) is the leading global advocate for the benefits of automating. A3 promotes automation technologies and ideas that transform the way business is done. Members of A3 represent nearly 1,100 automation manufacturers, component suppliers, system integrators, end users, academic institutions, research groups and consulting firms from throughout the world that drive automation forward.

A3 hosts a number of industry-leading events, including Automate Preview Series (Ongoing), the Automate Show & Conference (June 6-9, 2022, in Detroit, MI), The Autonomous Mobile Robot & Logistics Week (October 10-13, 2022, in Boston, MA) and The Vision Show (October 11-13, 2022, in Boston, MA).

About Cowen Inc.
Cowen Inc. ("Cowen" or the "Company") is a diversified financial services firm that operates through two business segments: a broker dealer and an investment management division. The Company's broker dealer division offers investment banking services, equity and credit research, sales and trading, prime brokerage, global clearing, and commission management services. Cowen's investment management segment offers actively managed alternative investment products. Cowen Inc. focuses on delivering value-added capabilities to our clients in order to help them outperform. Founded in 1918, the firm is headquartered in New York and has offices worldwide. Learn more at Cowen.com. COWEN AND COMPANY, LLC: MEMBER FINRA, NYSE AND SIPC