Körber, which is an international technology company, is taking a stake in NAiSE GmbH, a German software company that specializes in vendor-neutral fleet management. The two partners are merging their capabilities in order to allow customers around the world to plan mixed fleets of vehicles throughout production and warehouse settings.
With the investment in NAiSE, Körber broadens its product line in fleet management for intralogistics and is strategically growing the software offerings of its Supply Chain Business Area. NAiSE was founded in 2017 and has been self-funded so far. Its fleet management software – FMS combines AGVs as well as autonomous mobile robots – AMRs from various manufacturers, as well as manual-driven industrial trucks, on a common control layer. With this investment, Körber is enhancing the prevailing cooperation between both companies to a strategic partnership and thus assisting NAiSE in its forthcoming growth phase.
The fact is that as automation grows, firms are considering larger fleets of vehicles from multiple vendors. Without a higher-level control layer, these fleets operate as independent solutions, this limits efficiency and transparency as well as scalability. Here is where NAiSE comes into play – the system links various vehicles and systems through a standardized fusion layer that can be quickly set up with bundled tools, irrespective of the WMS, Warehouse Execution System – WES or Warehouse Control System – WCS which operate in the background.
Both companies aim to join forces and expertise to fully tap into the entire potential of OEM-agnostic fleet management within the warehouse environment and thereby strengthen the link between NAiSE’s platform and Körber’s warehouse solutions.
NAiSE will keep supporting and further enhancing its platform when it comes to production logistics and associated standard applications and will make its current ecosystem of AGVs as well as AMR partners accessible to joint and new clients. NAiSE and Körber also intend to jointly develop new use cases for intralogistics applications such as humanoid robotics.
According to the member of the Körber Executive Board and responsible for the Business Area Supply Chain, Dr. Helena Garriga, “With NAiSE, we are gaining a partner that addresses the orchestration of mixed fleets with an approach that is vendor-agnostic, standardized, and field-proven, exactly what the market needs today. Together with the founding team, we will unlock this potential and offer our customers an end-to-end automation solution.”
Kai Przybysz-Herz, co-founder and CEO of NAiSE GmbH, says, “We deliberately chose a partner that respects our independence and also helps us scale internationally. Körber brings deep industrial experience, a global customer network, and a genuine understanding of entrepreneurial thinking. At the same time, we remain positioned as NAiSE – open to working with additional system integrators and vehicle manufacturers. For us, this approach is the foundation of our growth model.”
Interestingly, NAiSE will continue to do transactions with current and new partners as per routine. The operational management of the company will continue with the founding team of Kai Przybysz-Herz, Robert Libert, as well as Raphael Kusumoto. Körber is going to be a strategic investor and sparring partner to accompany the following stage of growth of NAiSE.
