The Munich industrial startup ProGlove has successfully completed its second financing round, raising a total of 5.5 million euros.
In addition to the American investors Intel Capital and Gettylab, DIVC and Bavaria Capital money into the Munich startup. Already in a previous financing round Intel Capital, Bayern Kapital, and Gettylab invested in ProGlove. A total of €7.7 million has already flowed into the company from external investors. ProGlove is developing a smart glove for the manufacturing industry and already counts BMW, Ikea, Lufthansa, and Rewe among its customers. Founder and CEO Thomas Kirchner says:
"We are very happy with our investors. With the new financing, we will focus on expanding our product portfolio with new hardware and software."
The startup wants to use the fresh money to accelerate its international expansion. ProGlove is already preparing its move to the American market with the help of the German Accelerator.
George Ried, Managing Director of Bayern Kapital, says:
"In the IoT era, industrial processes are evolving rapidly, but we are convinced that human workers will remain central to their role. This is precisely where the ProGlove technology offers significant growth potential, is perfectly tailored to the needs of today's manufacturing and logistics industries, and enables employees to complete their tasks more easily, quickly, and safely."
BMW also uses ProGlove in the USA
The Munich-based car manufacturer BMW is already working with the intelligent glove. Board member Peter Schwarzenbauer says:
"ProGlove initially developed its smart glove at our Dingolfing facility. The collaboration with this innovative and creative startup has proven very successful from the start. Today, the glove with integrated barcode scanner supports our employees at almost all European production and sales locations, and we have just begun rolling it out at our South Carolina facility."
The Swedish furniture giant Ikea has also been using the ProGlove gloves in its Dortmund distribution center since this month. Hakan Solmaz, who runs the Ikea center, explains that each scan now takes only half as long: "Instead of 7 seconds, our employees now need 3.5 seconds."
