Reimagine Robotics closes pre seed backed by Fly Ventures and Firstminute Capital
This article covers Reimagine Robotics, a robotics startup that has emerged from stealth and closed a pre-seed funding round to commercialise AI-powered robots that workers can teach, correct and adapt without specialist programming. The development aims to shorten deployment cycles in industrial and electronics manufacturing and supports manufacturers and process teams by enabling on-the-job robot training.
Reimagine Robotics, a robotics startup founded by former leaders of Google DeepMind’s Applied Robotics team, has emerged from stealth and closed a pre-seed funding round to commercialise AI-powered robots that workers can teach, correct and adapt without specialist programming. Headquartered in London and Sydney and co-founded by Jonathan Scholz, Oleg Sushkov, Akhil Raju and Misha Denil, the company says its approach aims to shorten deployment cycles in industrial and electronics manufacturing.
Why it matters
Manufacturers and process teams routinely face a trade-off: automation can raise throughput, but introducing or changing robot tasks typically requires specialist engineering and long lead times. Reimagine Robotics’ pitch is simpler: make robots teachable by the people who know the work. If effective, that could lower the barrier to automation for smaller factories and allow teams to iterate workflows on the shop floor rather than in the lab.
The company reports deployments in advanced manufacturing and electronics disassembly where rapid iteration mattered — for one project, it reduced the time to prototype and test a robot behaviour from about one day to around ten minutes. Faster prototyping can change how teams design processes: instead of modelling and scheduling weeks of engineering time, staff can propose and test ideas in near real time.
Inside the product
Reimagine builds systems intended for hands-on training and correction. Workers show a robot a task, observe its attempt, and correct errors directly. The company calls this workflow “monkey-see, monkey-do.” That interaction design shifts the skill set required from formal robot programming to domain expertise and on-the-job correction.
Early deployments reported include:
- A made-to-order plastics business where robots were taught to tend 3D printers overnight, remove print beds, operate latches and press controls. The customer’s own team then used the same platform to automate downstream stages such as washing, curing and drying.
- An electronics recovery project that used a three-robot disassembly cell to extract valuable materials from used hard drives. Reimagine worked with process engineers to evolve the cell in real time, combining people and robots to refine the workflow.
The company emphasises that humans remain central: robots are presented as tools that amplify labour rather than replace it. Reimagine says deployments are intended to make subsequent rollouts faster and more reliable as learned behaviours are reused across sites.
Who are the investors?
Reimagine’s initial phase was backed by pre-seed financing from venture capital firms Fly Ventures and firstminute capital, alongside a number of angel investors. Those backers funded product development, early customer projects and the team build-out across London and Sydney.
The company says this funding enabled pilot deployments and technical validation; it is now preparing a new round of fundraising to scale deployments and expand the team. The deal will be watched by robotics investors interested in applied AI that reduces the time and specialist skill needed to automate physical tasks.
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Jonathan Scholz, co-founder and CEO at Reimagine Robotics, said:
A useful robot should be able to learn from the person doing the work. They should be able to show it a task, put it right when it makes a mistake and move on to the next problem. That is what it means for a robot to learn on the job. It’s a process we call ‘monkey-see, monkey-do’.
In the announcement, Jonathan Scholz, co-founder and CEO at Reimagine Robotics, said:
A robot should arrive with the attitude of a new colleague: ‘How can I help? What do you want me to do?’ The people who understand the process should be able to answer those questions by showing the robot directly.
In the announcement, Jonathan Scholz, co-founder and CEO at Reimagine Robotics, said:
This next stage is about a new round of fundraising, expanding our team for more deployment muscle, putting robots into more workplaces, and showing that each deployment can make the next one faster, more reliable, and more efficient.
In the announcement, Jonathan Scholz, co-founder and CEO at Reimagine Robotics, said:
For us, this is not about taking people out of the process. A robot that learns on the job depends on people. The worker identifies the bottleneck, shows the robot how to help and corrects it until it is useful.
The bigger picture
Reimagine’s approach sits at the intersection of applied AI, human-robot interaction and operational technology. If its claims hold up across a wider set of customers, the company could help smaller manufacturers adopt automation incrementally without large upfront engineering programmes. The emphasis on rapid iteration and human-in-the-loop correction echoes broader trends in AI deployment: systems that augment domain experts rather than replace them.
The story also highlights an ongoing flow of talent from major AI labs into commercially focused robotics ventures. For UK and European manufacturers — where heterogeneous processes and smaller sites can make traditional automation costly — tools that reduce integration time and specialist headcount may be particularly valuable. Reimagine’s next funding and deployment milestones will be indicators of whether on-the-job learning for robots can move from pilots to mainstream industrial use.
They've invested in Reimagine Robotics
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