Flexxbotics and Zaptic Win Hexagon’s Third ‘Sixth Sense’ Cohort

Hexagon's Manufacturing Intelligence division names Flexxbotics and Zaptic winners of its third 'Sixth Sense' cohort. Both were chosen as winners after a program for the eight cohort participants that culminated with a pitching competition at the Sixth Sense Summit, at CodeNode in London in February 2024. Acerta Analytics was named as the runner-up in Hexagon's third cohort.

A panel of distinguished judges from Hexagon's corporate leadership team awarded Flexxbotics as a winner for its technology that provides workcell digitization for 'robot-driven manufacturing.' Zaptic joined the Flexxbotics team in the winner's circle for its connected worker platform for manufacturing that digitizes operations and accelerates operational excellence.

The cohort winners will be given access to Hexagon's resources for global expansion, including potential funding, worldwide office space and the company's suite of products and services. Additionally, they will be showcased on Hexagon's cloud-based digital reality platform for manufacturing, Nexus, providing them visibility with companies and the opportunity to connect to their systems and data to solve bigger challenges and deliver them more value.

“We are thrilled to announce Flexxbotics and Zaptic as the winners of Hexagon's third Sixth Sense cohort because both address critical automation and productivity challenges while pushing forward the digitization of the manufacturing industry,” says Josh Weiss, president of Hexagon's Manufacturing Intelligence division. “Sixth Sense was conceived to identify emerging innovations and has succeeded in providing a platform for high-growth startups such as Flexxbotics and Zaptic, granting them access to resources and customers that are typically beyond reach at this stage of their development.”

“Sixth Sense with Hexagon has been a tremendously valuable experience, and we're thrilled to be selected as the Industrie 4.0 manufacturing robotics software winner of the program,” said Tyler Bouchard, Co-founder & CEO at Flexxbotics. “We believe that the fleets of robots in the smart factory will run lights-out production, and that integrated inspection will be the critical 'eyes & ears' of autonomous manufacturing.”

“It's an honor to be selected as a winner for Sixth Sense, and we're thankful for the invaluable guidance and support we've received,” says Sandy Reid, co-founder at Zaptic. “As knowledge and skill gaps continue to widen, manufacturers desperately need a more efficient way to secure and build capability in the workforce. Partnering with Hexagon will allow us to meet this need at scale with Zaptic's AI-guided connected worker solution integrated with Hexagon products and service, delivering guided machine operation, troubleshooting, and maintenance to end users.”

Hexagon launched Sixth Sense in January 2022 to nurture startups with innovations that address critical manufacturing industry challenges.

U.S.-based Gelsight, was named the winner of Hexagon's second cohort in February of last year for its 3D tactile sensing solution through a digital sense of touch. It announced a global partnership to develop and sell solutions globally with Hexagon earlier this week. Hexagon would also like to congratulate the rest of the third cohort for their pitches and dedication to growth during the program. These startups include Dessia, Launchpad, Rafinex, RV Magnetics and ToffeeX.

“Sixth Sense is honored to be open to innovators worldwide addressing some of the planet's most significant challenges,” says Milan Kocić, head of Sixth Sense at Hexagon. “Across our three cohorts, we have witnessed how startup innovation empowers manufacturing leaders to confront society's future challenges. We eagerly anticipate welcoming another new cohort with diverse backgrounds and solutions to the latest challenges.”

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

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