Turns out the defense companies are teaming up across the pond, too.
Yesterday, Germany-based autonomous unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) company ARX Robotics announced it’s forming a “software-defined defense mobility” partnership with German propulsion and drivetrain prime RENK Group.
According to the two companies, the team-up will allow them to rapidly scale up production of UGVs and sell them in new markets in Europe, the United States, and the Middle East.
“Europe must take responsibility for its defense capabilities, and a critical component of that is for industry leaders such as ourselves to join forces with pioneering startups,” RENK Group CEO Dr. Alexander Sagel said in a statement. He said the pairing will “[pave] the way for a new era of intelligent, autonomous solutions that will redefine the future of defense.”
ARX Robotics UK CEO David Roberts told Tectonic that there was no capital exchanged as part of the partnership. “The purpose of strategic cooperation between RENK and ARX Robotics is to establish [a] software-defined defence mobility partnership for digital transformation, industrial growth, and international expansion,” he said in a written statement.
Buddy buddy: The ARX–RENK partnership is yet another example of a pattern that seems to be emerging in our little defense tech world: younger, nontraditional defense companies are teaming up with the established giants to benefit from their reach and existing infrastructure. And the giants are benefitting from the software the nontraditional companies build—bringing them into the modern, automated era.
(TBD whether these companies can avoid being bogged down by the pace of the primes.)
A few examples in recent months include:
- Havoc AI teaming up with Lockheed Martin
- Shield AI teaming up with RTX
- Anduril teaming up with Rheinmetall
Opposites attract: Like many of these pairings, ARX and RENK are on pretty much opposite ends of the defense industrial spectrum.
ARX was founded in 2021 in Munich and has made its name building and retrofitting autonomous ground vehicles. The company:
- Builds futuristic-looking modular tracked UGVs and autonomy kits aimed at missions like casualty evacuation, logistics, and battlefield sensing.
- Uses a home-grown autonomy stack called Mithra OS, which can turn pretty much any vehicle into a drone. That’s great news for the legacy tanks RENK helps to build.
- Raised a €31M (~$35M) Series A led by HV Capital back in April, bringing total funding to over €40M according to Pitchbook data.
- Is also backed by NATO’s Innovation Fund, Project A Ventures, Discovery Ventures, Omnes Capital and a few other VCs.
ARX’s tech is already being used by several European militaries and is currently deployed in Ukraine.
RENK, by contrast, has been around for more than 150 years and is one of the largest drivetrain and gearbox manufacturers in Europe. The prime:
- Specializes in heavy-duty transmissions for main battle tanks and naval vessels and has a vast manufacturing presence across Europe, the US, the Middle East, and Asia.
- Earned about €1.1B ($1.29B) in revenue last year.
- Works with 70 armies and 40 navies around the world.
- Has a team of about 4,000 and 20 manufacturing plants and sites worldwide.
- Powers major platforms like the Leopard 2 and the Bradley.
Marc Wietfeld, Co-Founder and CEO of ARX Robotics, said in a statement that the partnership with RENK will “[unlock] new opportunities for scale and global reach with RENK’s industrial strength and established market presence.” In other words, ARX will be able to use RENK’s global manufacturing presence and military partnerships to scale up production and sales big time.
Future so bright: The two companies say they will aim to expand into new markets, including “the USA, UK, France, Italy, India, and the Middle East,” where “modernization efforts and demand for autonomous capabilities are accelerating.”
- Existing platforms will be retrofitted on a “demand basis,” according to Roberts, and new RENK vehicles will be designed from the get-go with an eye towards autonomy. This will provide “an increased level of software/hardware integration from the cradle,” he added.
- Mithra OS can be integrated on a vehicle (making it autonomous) in a matter of “weeks or months, rather than years,” Roberts said.
Sounds like the collab won’t stop at UGVs, either. ARX and RENK plan to explore how Mithra OS can be integrated into larger vehicles—including surface vessels. They’re also looking at ways to “deepen their partnership” (fun), including with joint ventures and investments.