Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem do you solve?
Burak Yüksel, CTO and Co-Founder: In simple terms, Hive Robotics offers Swarm intelligence for autonomous, unmanned systems in the air, on the ground, and at sea. We develop industrial-grade hardware and software modules for secure communication, robotic perception, and drone control. Building on this, we deploy an AI-supported software layer that is distributed among the unmanned systems and collaborates within the swarm—with the goal of decentralized swarm intelligence.
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Burak Yuksel: Not really. Today, every unmanned system is developed as a standalone unit. Each is equipped with expensive sensors and connected to a central station that controls its movements. What we're aiming for, however, is for the sensors of one drone to also assist another—completely without human assistance. And we're doing this in a decentralized way.
Founding as an organic step
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Burak Yuksel: We founders have known each other for many years—both as friends and colleagues. Our collaboration was solidified in the drone startup environment, where we gained extensive technical and management experience in unmanned systems, flight control, secure communications, and operations. Founding Hive Robotics was therefore a very organic step for us: It emerged quite naturally—after numerous iterations and discussions, taking market demand into account.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Burak Yuksel: Hive Robotics is a Startup, which operates very closely with the market. This means that it has a broad vision for the future, but at the same time pursues a realistic and dynamic approach to market entry. The first few months were quite dynamic and challenging in this respect, but we are managing this phase very successfully.
Hive Robotics aims for global market leadership
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, where in five years?
Burak Yuksel: In one year: Production and sale of the first products to customers, as well as the generation of recurring revenue in Europe. In five years, we want to be the central hardware and software provider for swarm intelligence worldwide.
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Burak Yuksel: We have a strong talent network here in Munich and were able to quickly build our core team thanks to our personal contacts with outstanding engineers. Our B2B relationships are also developing rapidly, aided by Munich's startup ecosystem.
Munich Startup: Risk or security?
Burak Yuksel: There are many risks in the startup business. We see the greatest risk as the gap between technical feasibility and market viability. For this reason, we have built a technically highly competent team and focused on market-oriented goals. In doing so, we aim to create security for our company – by generating recurring revenue and building strong IP. This was made possible thanks to our investors.
