Malaysia-based robotics company DF Automation & Robotics (DF Auto) has secured $1.85 million of fresh funds to fuel its expansion plans.

The investment round is led by Malaysia-based Vynn Capital, through its mobility and supply chain fund that is backed by KWAP, Sime Darby Berhad, MAVCAP, and other strategic limited partners, the company said in a statement on Friday.

The investment round was also participated by second-time investor, Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC), new investor Japan’s Leave a Nest Capital, and individual investors through equity crowdfunding.

DF Auto has a global client base spanning across Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Ireland, and Malta, according to the statement.

“This investment will momentously support our business growth and expansion. Additionally, the strategic collaboration with our investment partners will enable us to leverage their extensive expertise in finance, business growth, and customer networking for the growth of DF Auto.” said Dr Yeong Che Fai, Co-Founder and CEO of DF Auto.

DF Auto was established in 2012 by three engineers with a passion for robotics who met at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), namely Dr Yeong Che Fai, Ricky Yap Wee Yang, and Tan Ping Hua. The three banded together wanting to provide a solution through robotic automation for the rising labour costs faced by the region’s thriving manufacturing industry.

As a homegrown Malaysian startup, DF Auto has the capability to design and manufacture autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for various industries.

An AMR is a mobile robot that can navigate autonomously from one location to another, making it highly useful for automating intralogistics in alignment with smart factory transformation.

Other benefits of AMRs include reducing labour dependency, increasing efficiency, and enhancing safety, particularly for tasks involving heavy and repetitive loads that pose risks to humans.

DF Auto has several series of AMR models, namely Zalpha, Zetha, Zamma, Titan, and Zoei, each designed for different loads, purposes, and capabilities. The startup boasts a distinguished clientele, primarily comprising multinational corporations (MNCs) from key global industries.

These sectors include semiconductor manufacturing, automotive, electronics and electrical (E&E), food and beverage (F&B), aerospace, and healthcare services. DF Auto exports its robots to numerous countries.

Statista Market Insights estimates reveals that the global industrial robot segment will generate $11.4 billion in revenue by 2029. In a fragmented industry where smaller manufacturers dominate half the global industrial robotics market revenues in 2022, DF Auto is confident it can capture a meaningful market share within the next few years.

DF Auto has developed a reputation for pioneering technologies and customised solutions for their clients.

Notable projects include Mak Cik Kiah 19 (MCK19), which assisted in distributing medicines and food to COVID patients’ rooms and more recently, Zoei, an AMR which can move in any direction in a 2-dimensional plane through its omnidirectional navigation capability allowing the AMR to perform tasks faster and enhance safety. Moreover, its in-house operating system, Navigation Wizard (NavWiz) and DFleet, in addition to the extensive maintenance support that DF Auto offers to its global client base, creates an integrated user-friendly ecosystem across its broad range of products.

“As a venture capital firm, we stand behind great founders who are able to observe long-term opportunities and be able to build meaningful products that are customer centric. We believe the team in DF Auto is ready to bring the business to the next level, and hence Vynn Capital is ready to support the team with the ecosystem that we have built”, said Victor Chua, Vynn Capital’s Founding & Managing Partner.

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