PaintJet
Assembly Line
PaintJet Raises $10M in Series A Funding to Protect the Nation’s Infrastructure from Premature Aging with Industrial Painting Robots
PaintJet, the robotics company bringing automation to industrial painting, today announced it has raised $10M in Series A funding to bring critical automation technology to the construction industry and address widespread labor shortages. The latest round of funding was led by Outsiders Fund with participation from 53 Stations, Dynamo, Pathbreaker Ventures, MetaProp and VSC Ventures.
Rather than selling or leasing its robots to construction teams, the startup provides a comprehensive service inclusive of its robot and proprietary paint and maintains oversight of the painting process from start to finish. This model enables PaintJet to tap into the $200 billion paint market without being reliant on a shrinking workforce.
With the new capital, PaintJet will relocate its headquarters from Nashville to Virginia in early 2024 and make strategic engineering, financial and operational hires. This move will also support the company’s expansion into marine-based projects. When used on ships, PaintJet’s proprietary paint can not only prevent rust and corrosion, but prohibit mollusks, algae, and fungus from attaching to the bottom of a boat. Without this layer of protection keeping the boat’s bottom smooth, ships can lose 40% of their fuel economy due to increased drag – a significant reason the US Navy has a $3B budget just to paint its ships and submarines.
PaintJet, A Robotic Solution for The $175 Billion Painting Industry, Raises $3.5 Million
PaintJet, a robotics and material sciences company automating large scale commercial and industrial painting, today announced it has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Dynamo Ventures, with participation from MetaProp, Pathbreaker Ventures, and Builders VC.
The US currently needs more than 100,000 painters to meet demand, and that will only continue to worsen with more than 41 percent of painters in the workforce expected to retire by 2031. Corrosion currently costs the US 3 percent of its GDP, and 80 percent of painting/corrosion prevention costs are due to labor. In short, painting is specialized and expensive work that has to be done.
PaintJet helps business and facilities owners rethink how buildings are protected, through advanced robotics, data, imaging, and specialty coatings. Its technology enables painters to increase their productivity and decrease time on the jobsite, resulting in lower costs while guaranteeing application quality. The technology itself is a mobile lift attachment designed to quickly and uniformly apply paint or industrial coatings to large scale commercial projects at an accuracy of 0.001” thick. Precision application reduces overspray and improves coating transfer efficiency, reducing coating consumption by 25 percent.