Norway’s Trener Robotics Closes $32 Million Series A to Turn Industrial Robots Into Adaptive Teammates
•February 20, 2026
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Companies Mentioned
Why It Matters
The infusion of capital fast‑tracks physical AI adoption, helping manufacturers address labor shortages and high‑mix production demands while reshaping the industrial robotics value chain.
Key Takeaways
- •$32M Series A brings total funding to $38M
- •Acteris lets operators program robots via natural language
- •Platform integrates vision, haptics, motion intelligence for real-time adaptation
- •Partners include ABB, Universal Robots, FANUC, Cadence, Nikon
- •Flexible automation market growing 14.3% CAGR
Pulse Analysis
The industrial robotics sector is at a tipping point as manufacturers grapple with chronic labor gaps and the need for high‑mix, low‑volume production. Physical AI—software that endows machines with perception and decision‑making—offers a scalable remedy, but it requires substantial investment to move from lab prototypes to shop‑floor reliability. Trener Robotics’ fresh $32 million Series A, backed by venture firms and strategic players like Cadence and Nikon, signals strong confidence that AI‑driven automation can deliver rapid ROI and broaden access beyond large OEMs.
Acteris, the company’s flagship platform, differentiates itself by being robot‑agnostic and conversational. Instead of writing brittle code, operators describe tasks in plain language, while the system translates intent into executable motion using integrated vision, haptic feedback and advanced motion planning. This approach reduces deployment time, lowers the skill barrier for system integrators, and enables robots to adjust on the fly to part variations or unexpected obstacles. By running on existing ABB, Universal Robots and FANUC hardware, Acteris sidesteps costly equipment upgrades, positioning it as a practical bridge between legacy automation and next‑generation, software‑defined factories.
The market for flexible, adaptive automation is projected to expand at a 14.3% CAGR, driven by rising operational costs and the push for resilient supply chains. Trener’s growing ecosystem of integration partners across Europe and the U.S., combined with its award‑winning technology, positions the firm to capture a sizable share of this growth. For midsize manufacturers, the platform promises a repeatable path to scale capabilities beyond traditional CNC tending, while larger players can leverage Acteris as an intelligence layer to orchestrate heterogeneous robot fleets. As more enterprises adopt conversational AI for production, Trener Robotics could become a cornerstone of the emerging software‑defined manufacturing stack.
Norway’s Trener Robotics closes $32 million Series A to turn industrial robots into adaptive teammates
San Francisco and Trondheim-based Trener Robotics has raised a $32 million Series A to push Physical AI deeper into factory floors, in a round co-led by Engine Ventures and IAG Capital Partners, with strategic backing from Cadence and Geodesic Capital, through Nikon’s NFocus Fund. Shanda, Emergent Ventures, Fitz Gate Ventures, Techable VC, Radius Capital Ventures, and Raisewell Ventures. The raise brings total funding to more than $38 million. The company is building Acteris, a robot-agnostic AI skills platform that replaces rigid, code-heavy programming with conversational, software-defined control—allowing operators to describe tasks in natural language and enabling robots to adapt in real time using vision, haptics, and motion intelligence. Trener plans to use the fresh capital to accelerate T-Labs R&D, expand its skills library, hire globally, and scale go-to-market partnerships—positioning itself as a foundational intelligence layer for next-generation, software-defined industrial automation.
Trener Robotics’ Acteris is a robot agnostic skills platform that instead of rigid coding lets operators describe tasks to automate in their own words, turning conversational input into executable automation. By using physical AI to master vision, language, and movement, the platform adapts to changing parts and unstructured production environments in real-time.
Trained on visual, haptic, language, and action data, Acteris enables industrial robots to self-learn and operate as adaptive workers in complex, real-world production environments. Through an agentic interface, users can program robots via natural conversation, intuitive task sequencing, and high-fidelity simulation—empowering operators and system integrators of any skill level to deploy safe, high-performance applications. The platform combines advanced vision for part identification and handling even under adverse conditions, optimized motion planning that reacts to environmental changes with exceptional robustness, intelligent collision avoidance and safety features that mimic human common sense, and real-time production dashboards that provide continuous performance monitoring and operational insight.
“For decades, industrial robotics has been limited by dynamic complexity, confining millions of robotic arms to repetitive, single-purpose tasks in highly controlled environments,” said Dr. Asad Tirmizi, Co-Founder and CEO of Trener Robotics. “We’re fundamentally changing this – transforming robots into intelligent, adaptable teammates by replacing procedural programming with a control system that supports a growing library of production-ready skills. Our go-to-market strategy empowers systems integrators and OEMs with a robot AI skills platform for deploying and controlling robots across diverse industrial environments.”
Unlike brittle, narrowly scripted systems or research-first generalist platforms, Acteris is a practical, shop-floor-proven solution that runs on the equipment manufacturers already own. Continuous improvement is driven by real production feedback.
In 2025, Trener Robotics demonstrated significant momentum, collaborating with more than 15 solutions and integration partners across Europe and the U.S., and integrating leading robot brands like ABB, Universal Robots and FANUC into Acteris.
The participation of Cadence and Nikon as strategic investors underscores the potential of self-learning systems as software-defined intelligence becomes critical to the factory stack. Nikon’s involvement reflects the importance of combining embodied intelligence with advanced vision and precision technologies to simplify and scale industrial automation. Cadence’s participation demonstrates the critical role of compute, simulation, and system design infrastructure in enabling the deployment of Physical AI at industrial scale. Together, these partnerships reinforce Trener Robotics’ ambition to serve as a foundational intelligence layer for the next generation of software-defined robotics.
“When we co-led Trener Robotics’ seed round, we saw a team with a clear vision to solve one of automation’s biggest bottlenecks,” said Reed Sturtevant, General Partner at Engine Ventures. “Their execution and ability to rapidly scale has been remarkable. This traction positions Acteris as the intelligence layer for physical automation and reinforces their ability to scale through partner-led distribution.”
The market for flexible, adaptable automation is advancing at 14.3% CAGR, driven by persistent labor shortages, demand for high-mix production, and rising operational costs that prompt manufacturers to seek solutions with a rapid return on investment. “Industrial automation is at an inflection point, with Trener Robotics well-positioned as a platform accessible to manufacturers of all sizes, creating a repeatable path for expanding capabilities beyond CNC machine tending. This is precisely what small and mid-sized enterprises globally need to compete as AI redefines manufacturing,” said Dennis Sacha, Partner at IAG Capital Partners.
Trener Robotics was co-founded in 2024 by CEO Dr. Asad Tirmizi and CTO Dr. Lars Tingelstad, who collectively have over two decades of experience in robotics and automation. Tirmizi previously worked at Vicarious, a robotics company acquired by Google, and contributed to the robotics and haptics program at ByteDance Inc., following a tenure at a European manufacturing research institute. Tingelstad served as an Associate Professor of Robotic Production at NTNU. Both have made significant contributions to robot software and control frameworks.
Last Fall, Trener Robotics won the prestigious Machine Tool Innovation Award at the world’s largest Machining Tradeshow (EMO Hannover) in recognition of its groundbreaking approach to robotics. This award highlights the industry’s shift away from complex, code-heavy programming toward an AI-driven model like Trener Robotics platform, where robots can learn, adapt, and perform complex tasks with human-like intuition. In late 2024, Trener Robotics was selected as the winner in the ABB AI Startup Challenge, which accelerates the robotics and AI industries by seeking innovation across the three key areas of natural language programming, skill learning, and autonomous decision-making.
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