Danish welding robot company WeldingDroid adds new owner and capital for expansion to Germany and the United States

WeldingDroid now plans to expand from six to 30 employees at its headquarters in Vejen, Denmark, and open branches in Germany and the United States before the end of 2022. The company is poised for explosive growth as the COVID pandemic lets up, and business kicks back into high gear. Sales in the first half of 2021 already exceeds total sales in 2020.

Robotics success in Denmark

Thomas Visti was the owner and CEO of two of the biggest robotics successes in Denmark: Universal Robots (UR) and Mobile Industrial Robots (MIR). He was named European CEO Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019, and today he is a serial investor who has changed his focus to investing in Danish high-tech upstarts and helping entrepreneurs scale to reach their full potential.

“It’s time to invest serious money across the board in this business,” Thomas Visti said. “We are talking investments in research and development, but also in sales and management.”

With his background in innovative robotics and a huge international network at his fingertips, it’s quite a scoop for an upstart like WeldingDroid to attract an investor of Thomas Visti’s caliber. But it is a good fit all the way around.

“WeldingDroid has a lot in common with UR and MIR,” Thomas Visti said. “This company has a unique product that pays for itself in a very short time. WeldingDroid is ready to scale and create some serious competition and disruption in the welding business.”

A WeldingDroid unit will pay for itself in 190 work hours, or just a month and half of eight-hour workdays. That means a business using WeldingDroid can outbid its usual competitors both on price and delivery time.

Part of The Lions’ Den – the Danish version of Shark Tank

Among the other investors in WeldingDroid are two of the ‘lions’ from DR1 TV’s The Lions’ Den – a Danish version of the American hit TV show, Shark Tank.

Lions Jesper Buch and Jacob Risgaard invested money in WeldingDroid after an episode of the show, and they are excited to get Thomas Visti onboard.

“We have worked with WeldingDroid since early 2020 and we feel certain the company is ready for international expansion,” Jesper Buch said. “By adding Thomas Visti, we have gained a strong partner to help us scale and expand.”

Original owner still in charge

Thomas Visti purchased 20 percent of the company but Kevin Christensen, who is the founder of WeldingDroid, still owns the majority at 22 percent. The company is based in Vejen, Denmark, where it was founded in 2019.

“When we first talked to Thomas Visti he had some great insights into how we were doing things and what we potentially could do differently,” Kevin Christensen said, adding that Visti was concerned about Christensen burning out or losing commitment to WeldingDroid. “His concern made a huge impression on me, and it showed he knows exactly how it feels to be in my shoes.”

What is WeldingDroid

WeldingDroid can be used for gas tungsten arch welding, also known as tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding of pipes and tanks with a diameter between 100 and 3000 millimeters. WeldingDroid completely changes the well-known process of welding tanks and pipes, completing a 60-minute contemporary welding job in just 10 minutes. It also uses 75 percent less gas than ordinary welding systems and uses artificial intelligence to collect data while completing the job.