Arkite raises 1.6 million Euro to accelerate its European expansion

Industry 4.0 specialist Arkite announces that it has closed a financing round of 1.6 million Euro to further accelerate its commercial expansion in Europe.

Arkite develops and markets the Human Interface Mate (HIM), an augmented reality technology to assist production operators. HIM uses a 3D sensor and a projector to inform, teach and guide the operator in his working area during the operational process. “Thanks to HIM, a manufacturing operator can perform complex operations with the same certainty as that of a robot,” says Johan Smeyers, co-CEO Arkite NV.

“In the highly competitive environment of the manufacturing industry, more complex operations are expected from an operator. Thanks to HIM’s support, an operator can execute a larger number of actions with a greater complexity”, says co-CEO Ives De Saeger, inventor of the concept.

Conquer the European market 

The company raised over €1.6 million additional capital in a second round led by Capricorn Venture Partners. Existing shareholders also joined the new investor. The proceeds will allow Arkite to reach its ambitious targets for 2018 and to further expand in Europe. Since the foundation of Arkite in 2015 by Ives De Saeger and Johan Smeyers, the company has grown into a team of 15 people.

At present, Arkite has customers in Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany. Since its launch in May 2016 HIM has been applied at different customers in various sectors such as automotive, telecom, andpharma.

“We can count on far-reaching interest from companies from all over Europe. In order to answer the questions from these customers, we can use the extra financial resources well”, according to Johan Smeyers.

“In addition, our existing customers also request additional features from HIM. The existing highly appreciated wizards will be further enriched with additional functionalities. These enable the customer to build applications quickly and easily. The development team has its hands full and needs to be further strengthened with engineers and IT specialists”, adds Ives De Saeger.

The team of Arkite, headquartered in C-mine Crib in Genk, will grow from 15 to 30 people in 2018.

Capricorn Venture Partners sees a bright future for Arkite. “In the very competitive space of Augmented Reality and Industry 4.0, Arkite stands out by having a true commercial product on the market used by a number of top tier clients in the make industry. We are excited to support the company’s further growth,” says Katrin Geyskens, Partner at Capricorn Venture Partners.