Thiel-Backed Maidbot, Inc Creator Of Rosie The Robot Partners With BISSELL, Inc.
AUSTIN, Texas (PRWEB) January 08, 2018 -- BISSELL led the investment round with participation from existing and new investors including 1517 Fund, Comet Labs, and Rough Draft Ventures, along with strategic hospitality and industrial cleaning organizations. The investment will help the company expand its sales and marketing efforts, build out its engineering capabilities, and accelerate Maidbot’s transition to mass production.
The financing will enable Maidbot to maintain the momentum it has built over the last year through successful pilot programs with some of the world’s leading hotel brands. “The value of Maidbot’s product offering goes well beyond the functional benefits of utilizing a robotic vacuum to assist with housekeeping operations. Their robots serve as mobile data platforms that generate a myriad of information on the building environment and operations that enables hotel operators to improve both the housekeeping and customer experiences,” said Ryan McLean, Senior Vice President with BISSELL, Inc. “We have seen the adoption and impact of robotic vacuums in households, and we believe that we are going to see similar trends in commercial cleaning for spaces like hospitality and office. Maidbot is leading the robotic transition in the hospitality industry, and we are excited to collaborate with and support them as they work to build a great company in an exciting category.”
Maidbot’s first product 'Rosie' is an autonomous floor cleaner that provides safe and cost-efficient automated solutions to the hospitality industry while collecting actionable data to empower managers and operators. Rosie decreases the time required to clean a room and reduces work-related injuries while improving the room attendant and guest experiences. Housekeepers have one of the highest injury rates in the hotel industry and the entire private sector, according to a 2012 report by UCLA. The Maidbot team saw an opportunity to bring innovation to an industry that was sorely lacking in the change department. “It’s been the same for over 100 years. The biggest innovation in housekeeping has been an electric vacuum which came out in 1905,” says Micah Green, founder, and CEO of Maidbot. Through its early pilot programs, Maidbot has been able to demonstrate the benefits of innovation to several hotel operators and the industry appears to be ready for the change. By using Maidbot's systems, hotel operators see an increase in profitability, healthier and happier staff, and higher guest satisfaction. ‘Although room attendants were unsure of Rosie at first, they love her now: they reported feeling a lot less back, shoulder, and wrist pain after just a few days and the operators appreciate happier team members. They have also told us that the data we can collect is just as valuable as the efficiency itself,’ Micah Green, Founder, President and CEO of Maidbot (Thiel Fellow, Forbes 30U30) said while reflecting on their pilot programs. The company will continue with its ongoing pilot programs through mid-2018 and expects to deliver its first products by late 2018.
About Maidbot, Inc.
Maidbot revolutionizes the hospitality industry by leaving dull, dirty, and dangerous tasks to autonomous solutions, allowing humans to focus on more meaningful and enjoyable work. Founded in a dorm room at Cornell University, Maidbot provides safe and cost-efficient automated solutions to the hospitality and industrial cleaning industries. Maidbot's team is headquartered in Austin, TX and is made up of hospitality experts, rocket scientists, and robotics engineers that have worked for organizations including Starwood Hotels and Resorts, SpaceX, NASA, Shark Ninja, and Apple among others, and has partnered with several top VC firms, hospitality companies, and industrial cleaning companies. For more on Maidbot's story and products, visit http://www.maidbot.com.
About BISSELL, Inc.
For 140 years and counting, Michigan-based BISSELL Homecare, Inc. has developed innovative floor care solutions that make cleaning easier. As the top-selling brand in floor care appliances, based on NPD unit sales, BISSELL understands that fuller lives often mean more messes, and that convenient cleaning tools help us embrace life’s messier moments. Now in its fourth generation of family leadership, the company supplies households across the globe with vacuums, sweepers, carpet-cleaning machines, hard floor cleaners and cleaning formulas. For more on the BISSELL complete line of floor care products, visit http://www.bissell.com.
Micah Green, Maidbot, http://www.maidbot.com, +1 8446243268 Ext: 3, [email protected]
Share this article