Portfolio Spotlight: Peer Robotics

About the Guest: Rishabh Agarwal is the co-founder of Peer Robotics, a company making factory robots as easy as teaching a colleague. He grew up in a manufacturing family, studied robotics, and is building autonomous mobile robots that shop floor workers can train in real time — no programming required.

I still remember my first meeting with Rishabh Agarwal, co-founder of Peer Robotics.

He didn't sound like someone who learned manufacturing from a deck. He sounded like someone who's actually lived it.

His family runs manufacturing businesses. He grew up around production lines. And it shows in the way he builds.

On my call with him, he told me a line I can't forget.

He asked a worker how it felt to work with the robot on the floor.

The worker said:

"It feels like I'm walking a dog every day."

The robot kept getting stuck. The worker had to pull out a cable controller and manually walk it out of trouble.

Instead of doing his job, he was babysitting a machine.

That's the gap Peer Robotics is trying to close.

What Peer Does Differently

Peer's core idea is simple:

The people on the shop floor should be able to teach the robot.

Not engineers. Not external integrators. Not "call someone next week."

A worker can physically guide the robot through the task, and it learns the route in real time. They call this Person2Peer Teaching (and they've built IP around this approach).

When the line changes, you don't reprogram for weeks. You show it again. That's it.

Why I Invested (and Doubled Down)

The macro is obvious: labor shortages + rising costs + manufacturers that want automation without complexity.

But what matters to me is always the same thing:

Does it get used in real life?

Manufacturing is brutal. If something doesn't work, it gets rejected quietly and fast.

Peer earned real adoption early — and that's why I invested, and later did a follow-on.

A Practical Update I Like

In our most recent catch-up, Rishabh shared something very "real hardware founder":

They're manufacturing a new version of the robot and putting serious attention on certifications and quality before shipping broader deployments. He's personally going to India to make sure this version is rock-solid — because once hardware ships, mistakes get expensive fast.

If you're curious, here's my full conversation with Rishabh.

A Quick Note About How I Invest

Through Startupist Ventures, I invest globally in early-stage startups.

I'm sector-agnostic on purpose — I like patterns, not categories. And I genuinely enjoy meeting founders and learning how they think, especially when they've lived the problem they're solving.

Peer is one of those examples. And after our investment, it was great to see strong investors continue to back the company — including Draper, who invested after us.

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Also — over the last few weeks, I met a bunch of startups I found genuinely interesting.

This is not me promoting them, and it's not me trying to make any investment decision "transparent" publicly.

I just like sharing what I'm seeing — strong teams, sharp ideas, and problems worth paying attention to.

Startups I Met Recently (Interesting Teams)

Studio3e8 (USA) — 3D Printing Hardware
Building a desktop metal 3D printer using a safer, laser-free process to make metal parts in office environments — aiming to make metal prototyping faster and more accessible for engineers.

Intrinsic Power (USA) — Energy / Grid-edge
Building smart power systems combining AI + integrated hardware to manage electricity at the building/site level — reducing install complexity and improving capacity utilization.

Promake.ai (Turkey) — AI / No-code for SMBs
Lets anyone describe a website/app/store in plain language, and AI builds, launches, and maintains it — including ongoing updates via chat.

Loomia (USA) — e-textiles / Advanced Manufacturing
Creates soft, flexible electronic layers that embed heating, sensing, lighting, and circuits into textiles and surfaces — enabling smart products across wearables, automotive, and industrial use cases.