From hardware to software: Starnus Technology wins The Golden Lightbulb

The 10th edition of the Gerard and Anton awards, awarded its Golden Lightbulb 2024, a prize to the most promising young startup, to Starnus Technology.  

Recognising excellence in young startups, the Golden Lightbulb (het Gouden Peertje) brings to light a unique and innovative idea that is attempting to become a reality. While last years´s winner  focused on creating a circular return system for glass packaging, this years ‘Gouden Peertje’ has gone to Eindhoven-based company Starnus Technology. We spoke with founder and CEO Khashayar Mansourizadeh to hear about the journey and aspirations of the young company.

Origins

The company started in 2021, when it decided to develop a unique modular robot technology capable of adapting and customizing to customers’ particular needs. However, about a year ago, “we started to realize that the market seemed not to be moving towards this robotic solution as fast as we thought; something was missing in this industry.”  The brainchild of this curiosity was Starnus AI Suite – which led Starnus Technology to win the Golden Lightbulb. It was a solution to the gap in the industry.

Rerouting

“We saw 90% of the market is unable to move towards this automation and digitalization solutions because they lack the infrastructure, analysis resources, processes are not data-driven enough or sometimes IT infrastructure is quite old. At that point, we  decided to focus on solving these challenges.” Putting on hold the robotics side of their mission, Starnus decided to divert the company’s internal focus to developing intelligence operations.

Same industry, different product

Employing AI and generative AI, this suite comprises five individual products designed to improve data generation, collection and analysis for companies within the manufacturing and logistics industry. Its end goal: find company/industry bottlenecks and advise on best optimisation practices to improve business efficiency and overall market competitiveness.

“What we say always is that manufacturers and logistics are the real drives of the industry because anything we use daily is produced by someone and is delivered in a supply chain. If we really want to compete at a global level, we need to take care of the industries earlier in the supply chain.”

The software has already successfully completed a pilot project with Rhenus Solutions, with which it hasa strategic partnership with. “Somebody has to do it. If no one is, then we should do it. As engineers, we loved building robots but we were also disappointed when we saw that this industry was not ready for it.”

Rewarding results

Because of the new path they took with the company, one could consider them to be in the early traction phase. Yet challenges have been constantly rolling their way.  

Het Gouden Peertje is, therefore, a gratifying reward for the startup’s bold decision to divert its focus and take on a completely different challenge. “It is an energy source for the team to see that the efforts we put in are lead to a good place.”

Building a fully scalable platform

The company’s main goal? “Our short-term goal, I would say, is building the fully scalable platform. It’s a huge project, and executing it properly is a challenge. That’s the first thing”.

Starnus AI Suite contains over 20 types of machine learning and AI algorithms inside its software, making it highly scalable. This enables the client to use it with minimal or no external support, with most of the load being taken care of by the AI algorithms behind it.

Of course, the company has bigger plans after that. “Getting it outside of the borders of the Netherlands to other European countries, but then my big step I would really love to do is to enter into the US market”.

A gut feeling

The company has just recently started with this project, but the possibilities are big for Starnus, and there is of course, the infamous gut feeling. “I feel that we are building something very useful for an unexplored market.  It has a very huge potential, and to be honest, I feel if we land in the US market, we can bring it to a Unicorn stage.”

Choosing such a mythical character for a business phenomenon is no coincidence. Coined by American venture capitalist Aileen Lee in 2013, ‘Unicorn’ companies are startups valued at over 1 billion dollars, a phenomenon as rare and legendary as that of the infamous horned creature. 

Starnus Technology’s Gouden Peertje award celebrates their innovative determination and resilience. Intending to encourage promising young startups, this recognition fuels their ambitious growth plans, whatever and wherever those may end up being. “I think winning this award is a sign of persistence, of not giving up. We’ll just keep our focus and keep going.”