Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem are you solving?
Burak Yüksel, CTO and Co-Founder: In simple terms: Hive Robotics provides swarm intelligence for autonomous, unmanned systems in the air, on the ground and at sea. We develop industry-ready hardware and software modules for secure communication, robotic perception and drone control. Building on this, we deploy an AI-powered software layer distributed between the unmanned systems that works together within the swarm – with the goal of achieving decentralized swarm intelligence.
Munich Startup: But that already exists!
Burak Yüksel: Not really. Today, every unmanned system is developed as an individual unit. Each is equipped with expensive sensors and connected to a central station that controls their movements. What we’re aiming for, however, is that the sensors of one drone also help another – without any human intervention. And we’re realizing this in a decentralized way.
Founding as an organic step
Munich Startup: What’s your founding story?
Burak Yüksel: We founders have known each other for many years – both as friends and as colleagues. Our collaboration solidified in the drone startup environment, where we gathered extensive technical and management experience in the areas of unmanned systems, flight control, secure communication and operations. Founding Hive Robotics was therefore a very organic step for us: it came naturally – after numerous iterations and discussions taking market demand into account.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Burak Yüksel: Hive Robotics is a startup that operates very close to the market. This means: it has a big vision for the future, but simultaneously pursues a realistic and dynamic approach to market entry. The first few months were quite dynamic and challenging in this respect, but we’re managing this phase very successfully.
Hive Robotics eyes global market leadership
Munich Startup: Where do you want to be in one year, and where in five years?
Burak Yüksel: In one year: production and sales of the first products to customers and generation of recurring revenue in Europe. In five years, we want to be the central hardware and software provider for swarm intelligence globally.
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Burak Yüksel: We have a strong talent network here in Munich and were able to build our core team quickly thanks to our personal contacts with excellent engineers. Our B2B relationships are also developing rapidly, supported by the startup ecosystem in Munich.
Munich Startup: Risk or security?
Burak Yüksel: There are many risks in the startup business. The biggest risk we see is the gap between technical feasibility and market viability. For this reason, we’ve built a technically highly competent team and deliberately focused on market-oriented goals. This is our way of creating security for our company – through the generation of recurring revenue and the development of strong IP. This was made possible thanks to our investors.
