Seal Robotics has completed a pre-seed financing round of approximately 1.8 million euros (2.1 million dollars). Creator Fund leads the round. Auxxo, January Ventures, Marvelous, and Stefan Tietze also participate.
The robotics startup founded in 2025 develops systems that automate clearly defined, safety-critical, and previously manually performed processes in terminal logistics. The team focuses on activities that burden terminals under high time pressure and increasing skilled labor shortages. Seal Robotics aims to support operators in making operations more stable and predictable while increasing work safety and reliability.
Solution for twistlock and pin handling
With the capital, Seal Robotics is expanding ongoing pilot projects in Northern Europe and Southeast Asia. At the same time, the company is preparing the launch of its first robotic systems for twistlock handling and pin handling. Both processes are among the dangerous, today mostly manually performed tasks in securing containers on ships and trains.
Marie-Elisabeth Makohl, CEO of Seal Robotics, says:
“During my experiences on a container ship in the European North Sea and North Atlantic, I personally witnessed how physically demanding and time-critical container securing is. As a roboticist from the Technical University of Munich, this fact convinced me that robotics should be deployed exactly where it has the greatest impact in daily terminal operations. With this current funding, we are focusing on making these processes more robust, both for the employees on site and for overall operations.”
Daniel Leidner, CTO of Seal Robotics, adds:
“After fifteen years in space robotics at the German Aerospace Center, I have learned to develop systems that work reliably under difficult conditions and can be safely operated remotely. Many of these principles can be directly transferred to terminals. Robotics and AI have today reached a level of maturity that allows clearly defined processes such as twistlock and pin handling to be automated with consistent quality.”
Next planned steps
Over the next twelve months, Seal Robotics plans to expand engineering and operations and deepen partnerships with terminal operators worldwide. The goal is to meet the growing demand for reliable, safe, and predictable automation in container handling. That this mission strikes a nerve is also the view of Jamie Macfarlane, CEO of Creator Fund:
“Seal Robotics is a first-class team tackling a critical, long-neglected problem in global logistics. Despite the enormous importance of container traffic, many processes in terminals are still performed manually. Marie-Elisabeth recognized this challenge firsthand during her travels on container ships. Daniel is one of Germany’s leading robotics experts and brings extensive experience from his work at the German Aerospace Center. Together, they are bringing cutting-edge robotics to terminals to modernize processes that have barely changed over decades.”
