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Closer, Inc.

【AEA 2022 Alumni】
Automation has traditionally been out of the reach for smaller companies due to the large space requirements, technical know-how and machines limited to being single fuctional.
Closer Robots, founded in November 2021 will change this, with automation in picking, packing and palletizing accessible to smaller food processing companies.
Machines are expected to replace almost half of the workforce in the global food manufacturing space, the market potential is enormous. According to reserach firm Globe Newswire, it predicts the total addressable market in 2028 to be 130 billion USD world-wide. Closer believes the market size can be even greater through horizontal expansion including cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and other consumer products.
Our service differentiates as it is compact, scalable to multi-task and simple to operate. The core competence lies in the robot control, AI image-processing and simple-to-use interface. Our business model is Robot-As-A-Service, offering monthly subscription starting from $3,000 a month. Team of talented developers allows to build key functions in-house, allowing for quick development period, scalable yet low-cost solutions for manufacturers of all sizes. Today the smartphone is more powerful than room-size IBM mainframes from the 1960’s. Closer hopes to become the smartphone of mobile robots in the manufacturing space.

https://close-r.com/

NICK SUGIE
Co-Founder,
International Expansion Manager

Nominated by

TOSHIHIKO OUCHI – Japan
Professor,
University of Tsukuba
The company aims to reduce simple labor and manufacturing costs by providing compact, low-cost manufacturing robots for multiproduct and low-volume production. In the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and other manufacturing industries, it has been difficult to introduce robots tailored to variety of applications, such as wrapping, packaging, checking, etc. This company has patented recognition technology with a learning function using image sensors, as well as a system that allows on-site workers to easily teach a robot operation and has an excellent GUI (Graphical user interface). The company has also prepared a system integration platform that allows SIers to easily construct such systems. These differentiated technologies have enabled the introduction of robots into the above three-product industry, which has been difficult in the past.
The robot system has an excellent market impact because of the large potential market not only in Japan but also in the Asian region, where there are many manufacturing plants. Also, that has the potential to expand into other global markets, which will change people’s way of life.