Renu Robotics, a San Antonio startup spanning the self-driving vehicle and solar power industries, is looking to at least double the size of its workforce in 2022.
The company was founded in 2018 and makes 1,100-pound autonomous electric mowers that help control grass and weeds around solar panel farms.
"(It's got) about a third of the power of a Tesla car," said CEO Tim Matus.
In early 2020, the company had five employees with a few outsourced contractors. Since then, they've added 15 employees and are hoping to double, if not triple, that number in the coming year. Most of the new jobs will be based in San Antonio.
The new hires will help keep pace with the rapid growth of the company, Matus said. He noted that in a capital raise at the end of 2020, Renu Robotics raised about $3 million, and another $3 million toward the end of 2021.
Renu Robotics recently launched the Generation 3.0 model of its electric tractor, the Renubot, which has its own pod to charge its battery. The new robots also have the ability to ask for help from remote human operators if they run into any problems and can't operate properly. The Renubot can manage between 100 to 125 acres a month. The company shipped the first units in December and is moving into further production this year.
"We're scaling up heavily and we added a lot of people in the fourth quarter of the last year," Matus said.
With a roster of large energy customers that operate solar plants, Renu Robotics has plans to hire more field install technicians, who sell robots at different locations, getting them up and running and training customers in maintenance.
The company will also be hiring more mission control operators, who operate computers that surveil the robots' activity and assist them in the field when they need help. Another hiring area will be engineers and software writers. The company is also looking for a network administrator.
The growth of Renu Robotics will require a bigger building soon, Matus said, adding that the company is scoping out locations.
"San Antonio has been good to us and we're looking in the area," he said. "We want to figure out how to help the area and at the same time help ourselves grow in the best spot where it makes sense."
Renu Robotics also recently unveiled a "robots-as-a-service" model, similar to software-as-a-service, or SaaS. The service costs around $40,000 a year and includes 24/7 monitoring, data plans and transfers.
Customers no longer have to make capital expenditures to buy robots or incur debt to use their models, Matus said. Now, they can contract with the company directly to use the robots for five years, paying a subscription each year.
Matus hopes this innovation will help expand the robotic and software footprint in San Antonio — and also help in the fight against climate change, since the Renubot and its recharge pod and mission control cut down time, cost and carbon emissions for solar plants.
