David Reger, CEO of NEURA Robotics: €185M Raised to Power the Future of Cognitive Robotics

NEURA Robotics is transforming the robotics industry by building cognitive robots powered by physical AI. With €120 million raised and 5,000-10,000 robots already deployed, the company has set an ambitious goal of deploying 5 million robots by 2030. In this episode, I sat down with David Reger, CEO and Founder of NEURA Robotics, to explore how his company is solving the reliability and adoption challenges that have kept robotics a niche market, and his vision for making robots as ubiquitous as smartphones. Topics Discussed:NEURA's partnership-driven go-to-market strategy using horizontal and vertical partnersThe company's unique physical AI model built specifically for embodied intelligenceCurrent deployment of household robots starting with elderly care applicationsThe challenge of raising hardware funding in Europe versus Japan and ChinaBuilding cognitive robots that can operate with limited compute and bandwidthCreating a platform ecosystem where partners can download skills and applicationsThe regulatory and cultural barriers to robot adoption in different marketsNEURA's recent partnership with SAP and strategy to become Europe's next €100 billion companyGTM Lessons For B2B Founders:Leverage established channels for reliability-critical products: David built NEURA's entire go-to-market strategy around partnering with established robot companies rather than direct sales. He recognized that for reliability-critical hardware like robots, startups face an inherent trust deficit. "If you're talking about robots, there's all about reliability, it's all about trust because it has to run 24/7... And if you're looking into strength of a startup, that's exactly the point. Like this is something you don't have." B2B founders in hardware or mission-critical software should consider white-label partnerships with established players who already have the service infrastructure and customer trust.Build horizontal and vertical partnership ecosystems simultaneously: NEURA created a dual partnership model - horizontal partners (robot manufacturers) for broad distribution and vertical partners (domain specialists like welding or household task companies) for specialized applications. This creates a platform effect where "our partners don't have to have the knowledge, but they can simply download, let's say an app or a skill and they can use the robot like in all kinds of different domains." B2B founders should consider how to enable both broad distribution and deep specialization through complementary partnership types.Target markets where regulatory shifts create urgency: David identified that China's 2030 goal of transforming 5% of working labor to robotics (40 million robots) would force global competition. "The whole world has to, let's say, also wake up in the same time... because if we don't want to end up, let's say as a museum, we have to also contribute." B2B founders should identify geopolitical or regulatory shifts that create market urgency and position their solutions as necessary responses to competitive pressure.Raise capital in markets that understand your technology: When European and US investors were skeptical of hardware, David found receptive investors in Japan who "believe in robots" and understood the market potential. He eventually had to pivot to China for speed, then later successfully raised €120 million in Europe when the market shifted. B2B founders should be willing to pursue capital in non-obvious geographies where their technology vision is better understood, even if it requires navigating different business cultures.Focus on physical AI differentiation for embodied products: David emphasized that NEURA's competitive advantage lies in their physical AI model: "I do believe that like our AI model is one of the, let's say it's the best in the world in that space, because simply it's much more efficient and actually built for being physical, while the most other models are not."