Trener Robotics raises $32M for industrial robot skills platform

Trener Robotics raises €26M Series A for industrial AI automation

Trener Robotics, formerly T-Robotics, has raised €26 million, approximately $32 million, in Series A funding to scale its AI skills platform for industrial robots.

Trener Robotics is a San Francisco and Trondheim-based company building software that allows industrial robots to be programmed through natural language rather than procedural code. Its platform, Acteris, converts operator instructions into executable automation tasks by combining vision, language, and motion capabilities, and is designed to adapt in real time to variable parts and unstructured production environments. The platform runs on existing robot hardware from ABB, Universal Robots, and FANUC without requiring manufacturers to replace equipment. The company's first commercial focus is CNC machine tending, with additional applications planned through 2026.

The round was co-led by Engine Ventures, which also led the seed round, and IAG Capital Partners, with strategic participation from Cadence and Geodesic Capital through Nikon's NFocus Fund. Shanda Ventures, Emergent Ventures, Fitz Gate Ventures, Techable VC, Radius Capital Ventures, and Raisewell Ventures also participated. Total funding now exceeds $38 million. The capital will support T-Labs R&D, new skill training, global talent acquisition, and market and partner expansion.

CEO Dr Asad Tirmizi spent over a decade in robotics research, including positions at Flanders Make, Belgium's manufacturing research institute, Vicarious, the AI robotics company acquired by Google in 2022, and ByteDance's robotics and haptics programme. He holds a PhD in Robotics and Haptics from Università di Siena, where he received the top doctoral dissertation award from the Italian Society of Researchers in Automatic Control. CTO Dr Lars Tingelstad served as Associate Professor of Robotic Production at NTNU from 2018 to 2024, heading the Robotics Group and focusing on optimisation and 3D geometry for industrial applications. The dual headquarters structure reflects the founding pairing directly; Tirmizi's background runs through US and European AI research, Tingelstad's through Norwegian academic robotics and NTNU's industrial engineering ecosystem.

The Nikon and Cadence positions are worth noting separately from the financial investors. Nikon is accelerating the commercialisation of robot vision system products as a new business pillar, and its investment in Trener is framed around the synergies between Acteris and Nikon's real-time situational recognition and robot control technologies. Cadence's participation reflects the role of compute, simulation, and system design infrastructure in deploying Physical AI at industrial scale. Both relationships give Trener access to vision and simulation capabilities relevant to expanding the Acteris skill library beyond its initial CNC applications.

In late 2024, Trener Robotics won the ABB AI Startup Challenge, a competition seeking innovation across natural language programming, skill learning, and autonomous decision-making. In autumn 2025, the company won the Machine Tool Innovation Award at EMO Hannover, the world's largest machining tradeshow. Through 2025, the company worked with more than 15 solutions and integration partners across Europe and the United States.

Acteris is commercially available and running in production environments, with CNC machine tending as the disclosed primary application. No customer names, fleet sizes, or revenue figures have been disclosed; the partner count and award recognitions are the primary external traction signals available at this stage.

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