BUILD WITH ROBOTS ACHIEVES LUCRATIVE NICHE
Albuquerque startup Build with Robots found its footing in the pandemic with a rectangular-shaped drone on wheels that rapidly provides autonomous disinfection for public facilities.
The company, which launched in 2017 at the FUSE Makerspace at Innovate ABQ Downtown, sells collaborative robots, or “cobots,” which are mechanical arms that use customized programming for a wide variety of mundane industrial or commercial tasks.
But when the pandemic began last year, the startup pivoted to create the new “Breezy One” robot to provide facility managers with an autonomous, mobile disinfection option against COVID. More than a dozen robots, which sell for $100,000 each, are now deployed at five institutions in New Mexico and Texas.
That includes St. Mary’s Catholic School in Albuquerque, the Albuquerque International Sunport, the Daikin Texas Technology Park in Houston, and two other Texas airports — Houston William P. Hobby International and George Bush Intercontinental — both of which signed new contracts in June for a total of six robot deployments, said company CEO Chris Ziomek.
“The pandemic really highlighted the need to add continuous disinfection to janitorial services,” Ziomek told the Journal. “Even after the pandemic, institutions like airports, schools and hotel chains want to keep disinfecting to kill germs, especially during cold and flue season.”
With COVID restrictions on large in-person events now disappearing, the company plans to attend a Las Vegas conference this month for
airport executives to demonstrate Breezy One on the exhibition floor.
“We’re particularly concentrating on airports because they’re a good fit for what we do,” Ziomek said. “There’s so much foot traffic constantly going through them.”
The company moved in June to a new 8,600-squarefoot office suite at the corner of Commercial Street and East Marquette Downtown, backed by $360,000 in Local Economic Development Act funding. It also received a new investment for an undisclosed amount from the Arrowhead Innovation Fund at New Mexico State University, which makes seed commitments of up to $200,000 for local startups.
The company grew its workforce from just two fulltime employees in 2019 to 17 today. It received $573,000 in Job Training Incentive Program grants since last year, and now expects to reach 24 employees by yearend 2021, and 64 by 2024.