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Premier Labs is a new venture studio with offices in Pittsburgh and Atlanta. Source: Premier Labs
While many startups come out of universities and search for problems to solve, another model is the “venture studio,” in which a company creates startups in response to customer needs. Premier Automation LLC today announced Premier Labs, a venture studio focused on building businesses that use proven automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence to address industry challenges.
Premier Automation is a systems integrator with more than three decades of experience enhancing productivity, efficiency, and worker safety across various industries. The company said it has worked with some of the world’s largest manufacturers and leading engineering companies.
Premier Labs will rely on the expertise of Premier Automation’s 150 employees in Monroeville, Pa., and Alpharetta, Ga., and its access to a diverse range of customers.
“Premier Automation has long been dedicated to advancing industries through innovative automation solutions,” said Mike Gunniers, president of Premier Automation. “Premier Labs furthers that commitment by creating commercial solutions to shape the future of industrial operations through automation, robotics, and AI.”
Venture studio model sees rapid growth
Corporate venture studios have seen significant growth of nearly 625% in recent years, said Premier Labs.
Joel Reed, former director of the Pittsburgh Robotics Network, is president of Premier Labs. Source: LinkedIn
“It’s a relatively new concept of the past five to 10 years,” said Joel Reed, president of Premier Labs. “Typically, early-stage venture firms pool capital to invest, but venture studios build startups from the ground up. They tend to be earlier in the life cycle than incubators or accelerators, serving as co-founders with larger equity share and control.”
The studio will provide start-up capital, in-house residency, and access to Premier Automation’s network of engineers, investors, and advisors.
“We provide valuable resources, beyond capital, that startups have had trouble accessing — market understanding, industry experience, and customer relationships,” Reed told The Robot Report. “We can start in Premier’s market segments and creating companies based on the pressing problems we hear from our daily interactions.”
Premier Automation has a history in drive systems for industrial motors, traditional industrial automation, and robotics, he noted.
Premier Labs will mostly use off-the-shelf components to avoid the lengthy research and development times that are a barrier to adoption.
“Integrators tend to build one-off systems based on a specific customer’s requirements,” explained Reed. “Premier Labs operates separate from Premier Automation with a solutions approach, allowing us to address problems shared across customer and market segments.”
“But we leverage the integrator mindset to use right resources, or proven technologies, for the right purpose, which is a more capital-efficient approach for us and our customers,” he added.
“We’re intensely focused on customer problems and the immediate value proposition,” Reed said. “We also don’t aim to automate everything in a workflow, allowing us to consider more practical solutions such as collaborative robotics.”
Premier Labs has customers in its pipeline
Premier Labs said it is already working on commercial opportunities in metals production, manufacturing controls, and food service.
“We’re not restricted by industry or application and may consider other industries such as logistics, retail, or any application that requires industrial-scale robotics,” said Reed. “We started with a robust pipeline from Premier Automation’s experiences. And we rely on a framework for capturing ideas and quickly validating product-market fit, which is a struggle for many startups..”
Premier Labs is looking to collaborate with U.S. manufacturing professionals looking to drive change, innovators seeking to commercialize a concept, and investors focused on industrial automation.
“Pittsburgh is a natural place for this to emerge from, in my experience,” Reed noted. “We have breadth and depth both in our technology and manufacturing communities.”
“And we are unified in helping bring robotics to industries that typically struggle to adopt new solutions,” he continued. “While we have a small team today, we will expand that nationally through stakeholder networks.”
“We’ve built an engaged network of advisors, and the enthusiasm for our approach has exceeded expectations,” stated Reed. “We aim to leverage Premier Automation’s connections and collaborate with leaders experienced in addressing industry challenges, focusing on founders and team leaders with relevant expertise.”
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