Listen to this article

Faizan Sheikh is the CEO and Co-Founder of Avidbots, a producer of indoor autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). The company’s first product, Neo, is a purpose-built commercial floor cleaning robot which utilizes lasers, 3D cameras and machine learning to navigate autonomously and avoid obstacles. Sheikh was born in Pakistan and moved to Canada at the age of 14. He graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) in Mechatronics Engineering from the University of Waterloo. After working on a robotics startup in his final year at Waterloo, Faizan would go on to found Avidbots in 2014 with Pablo Molina – a classmate and friend from his university days.  Together with Pablo and the team, Faizan has built Avidbots into one of Canada’s fastest growing robotics companies.

Faizan Sheikh was recently interviewed by Dan Kara, VP of WTWH Media’s Robotics Group.

---

Dan Kara – Before we begin, perhaps you could briefly describe Avidbots and the company’s offerings?

Faizan Sheikh – At Avidbots our goal is to make robots ubiquitous. We design, manufacture, sell, service and support Neo, our fully autonomous commercial robotic floor-cleaning solution. You can find Neo deployed around the world, with leading companies continuing to choose Neo as their go-to automated floor care solution. Neo keeps a variety of environments clean, including transit stations and airports, warehouses, manufacturing facilities, retail centers and shopping malls as well as hospitals and schools.

Dan Kara – Who are the company’s founders and what was the genesis of Avidbots?

Faizan Sheikh – Avidbots was founded in 2014 by Pablo Molina and myself. We both graduated from the University of Waterloo with Mechatronics degrees. Being mutual fans of Japanese anime, they dreamed of a world where robots were everywhere, helping people. When they graduated, we decided to realize that vision and founded Avidbots.

We focused our efforts on creating a robot that would perform dirty, dull and dangerous jobs. We focused on cleaning, and then the largest areas that needed to be cleaned… namely floors. We began work designing a floor-cleaning robot for commercial spaces. By June 2016, the first version of Neo was deployed.

Dan Kara – Do you have any estimates as to the size or total addressable market for autonomous, industrial floor cleaning solutions? What is the opportunity landscape?

Faizan Sheikh – Every year, $4 to $8 billion is spent on manual cleaning equipment such as scrubbers, vacuums, and sweepers. Many times that amount is spent on human labor to operate this manual cleaning equipment. Given that the world is evolving from manual cleaning operations to autonomous solutions, we believe that the opportunity for autonomous cleaning robots is north of $12 billion a year.

---

By deploying an autonomous floor scrubbing solution, such as Neo, an organization can reallocate the labor that would have been tasked with floor cleaning to business-critical or value-add tasks. With autonomous floor scrubbers, floor care has gone from a cost center to a revenue generating activity.

---

Dan Kara –  What do you see are the key demand drivers for the Avidbots solution??

Faizan Sheikh – When considering the key demand drivers, there are really three to focus on The first is the rising cost of labor. The cost of cleaning labor continues to rise across North America. By implementing a robotic solution like Neo, organizations are able to reallocate 93% of that labor to other business-critical or value-added tasks. This allows organizations using autonomous floor scrubbers to focus on revenue-generating activities.

The second major demand driver relates to health and safety concerns. COVID-19 has brought cleaning out of the shadows — gone are the days when cleaning was something that just happened or took place out of sight. Executives are now actively discussing how their organization is cleaning, including how frequently, with what resources, with what efficacy and how performance is measured. Additionally, customers, employees and partners are now demanding a safe and clean environment free of dust, dirt, debris and biological contaminants—meaning cleaning protocols have increased across industries.

A third driver concern resources, or more accurately limited resources. Although there is an increased need for regular, consistent and measurable cleaning and disinfection, facility management teams often do not have necessary labor to meet the need. As a result, these teams are stretched thinner than ever before as they try to keep up. Combined with a very high job turnover rate, estimated at 300% in North America, robotics is the perfect solution to help meet this demand.

Dan Kara –  What do you consider to be the primary value propositions for Avidbots solution?

Faizan Sheikh – In terms of Neo’s value proposition… it’s a fully autonomous floor care solution that delivers an efficient, consistent and measurable clean. A fully autonomous scrubber, like Neo, is ready to clean 24x7x365. It will not take any breaks or days-off and requires no overtime pay. Neo is able to clean up to 42,000 square feet an hour with a single charge lasting for up to 6 hours. In theory, with Neo’s interchangeable batteries, an organization could clean their facility 24/7.

By deploying an autonomous floor scrubbing solution, such as Neo, an organization can reallocate the labor that would have been tasked with floor cleaning to business-critical or value-add tasks. With autonomous floor scrubbers, floor care has gone from a cost center to a revenue generating activity.

Cleaning efficacy is also measurable using Neo. With a manual solution, the floor cleaning cannot be quantified or qualified. There is no way to track what was cleaned and with what efficacy. Autonomous solutions on the other hand provide metrics and data on every single cleaning operation. With Neo and our proprietary web-based software, Avidbots Command Center, an organization can monitor, manage and track their Neo(s) remotely and in real-time from anywhere in the world. The metrics provided can be used to optimize their floor care operation over a period of time.

Dan Kara – Is Avidbots working with any partners? If ‘Yes’, could you please elucidate and briefly describe?

Faizan Sheikh – In some select markets throughout APAC and in the UK, we have distributor partners that will sell, service and support their region or territory. All sales in North America are direct.

---

Since early 2020, we have been using PTC’s Onshape cloud-based product development platform. We were frustrated with how our previous CAD system was slowing down communication between our teams across the world.

---

Dan Kara – What technology/platform does the team use to design your innovative products?

Faizan Sheikh – Since early 2020, we have been using PTC’s Onshape cloud-based product development platform. We were frustrated with how our previous CAD system was slowing down communication between our teams across the world. We were challenged with sharing updated product design data across our internal departments and external partners.

Onshape’s real-time data management gives us one single source of truth for product designs across the organization. Whenever one member of the team makes a change, everyone else can instantly see it. In addition, Onshape allows us to instantly share CAD models with other departments or outside partners with just a web link.

It means our collaboration process is much more fluid now and allows everyone more direct access to CAD models, freeing our engineers to focus on the highest value tasks. And in the digital world with a remote workforce, seamless collaboration is absolutely crucial. Onshape will continue to play a pivotal role in our product development.

Dan Kara – Perhaps you could describe for us a couple of notable customers? How has the Avidbots solution performed at those locations?

Faizan Sheikh – One notable partner includes DHL where Neos are deployed in sites across North America. Another includes the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky (CVG) International Airport where Neo continues to work alongside the housekeeping staff ensuring the airport terminal remains a safe and healthy environment for passengers, visitors and employees alike.

Dan Kara – Have you had any surprising insights when Avidbots systems are deployed? For example, how did the “real world” deployments differ from expectations going in?

Faizan Sheikh – I think one surprise for our customer partners is how Neo will be adopted within the organization. With some partners there is concern around the initial deployment as they’re unsure how their employees and customers will respond. At CVG Airport, for example, they started with Neo cleaning during the overnight shift. It didn’t take long though before they saw the benefits of having Neo cleaning during the day. It was quickly adopted by the housekeeping team and passengers felt safer seeing cleaning taking place during the day.

Dan Kara – I understand that Avidbots has received approximately US $25 million in funding, with the latest round, a Series B, coming in March 2019? Is the company seeking another round? If so, what would be the purpose?

Faizan Sheikh – We raised $31.5M CAD in Series B to a total raise of $47M CAD to date. No further information can be shared regarding additional raises at this time.

Dan Kara –Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Good luck with Avidbots going forward.

Faizan Sheikh – No problem. Industrial cleaning is a massive market, and Avidbots is in a great place to take advantage of the opportunity.