All credible stories start with a dark and stormy night or in someone’s garage, right? Well, that’s also true for us.

From university researchers to entrepreneurs

Antti and Matti Tikanmäki, a pair of brothers, were both still employed as researchers at the University of Oulu when they first got the idea of establishing a company. It all began with an idea that there was a clear demand for international business that the university was unable to handle: Whenever university employees participated in international robot competitions with the devices they had developed, others were interested in buying them.

At first, the scale of the business was very small and the brothers ran their company from their garage. The first projects were related to logic programming, the modernisation of production lines and the building of production machines, i.e. largely the same things we still do today.

Connecting to European networks

The second main idea for starting the company was also concerned with bringing the worlds of research and industry together. During their careers in research, the Tikanmäki brothers realised that there’s a need for operators that serve as a link between the world of research and industry in disseminating information. An aim was to use Probot Oy to provide the academic world with information about the needs of the industry while at the same time informing customers representing the industrial sector about solutions related to cutting-edge technology. Today, we continue to be involved in many development projects, including EU projects, and collaborate with various research institutes.

An aim was to use Probot Oy to provide the academic world with information about the needs of the industry while at the same time informing customers representing the industrial sector about solutions related to cutting-edge technology.

We got involved in our first EU project in 2010. The project was related to mobile robotics. Since then, we’ve been a part of many projects ranging from agricultural robotics to virtual reality and intelligent systems. Thanks to the EU projects, we’ve had access to a Europe-wide network and an opportunity to work with the industry-best professionals for over 10 years now. We get to make use of all this competence obtained in the EU-projects in the projects we carry out for our customers. At the same time, we get to provide our employees with an opportunity to further develop their competence. These are projects where your creativity can truly shine – only the objective of the project has been determined in advance and coming up with a solution is left entirely up to us. We get to spend a lot of time on the development process, as projects can span up to three years.

Getting a boost with new business premises

A major turn occurred in our history in the late spring of 2016 when we moved to our new business premises in the Metsokangas neighbourhood in Oulu. As a result, the company was able to take on more new projects and soon also hire more employees. We particularly began to focus on developing our own production, and our number of employees began to gradually grow.

With a bigger staff, we gained access to more opportunities for expanding our operations and found the courage to start contacting essential partners. We began representing promising, so-called next-wave technologies and also started closely collaborating with companies such as Beckhoff, KUKA and OMRON.

In the clutches of coronavirus

Just like everyone else, Probot Oy was faced with challenges in early spring 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic paralysed nearly all business. This was a huge shock to everyone, and we were no exception. The entrepreneurs and employees alike were struck by all kinds of fears.

But just after six months, the coronavirus crisis started to give way to a growth opportunity, largely thanks to BusinessFinland’s COVID-19 recovery aid. We received the aid at just the right time and were able to overcome the shock after just six months and could put our company back on its growth track. These difficulties also made us realise that we should invest more in our business strategy, building our brand, service design and marketing communications.

During the pandemic years, we proved that we’re a force to be reckoned with and have major growth potential. In just a couple of years, we grew our personnel from
a handful of employees to a staff of two dozen.

After the initial shock, the COVID crisis led to a significant increase in automation competence in the domestic market, as the pandemic led to the closing of borders around the globe. While a lot of industrial production used to be moved from Finland to places such as China and Eastern and Western European countries, a new trend has been to restore domestic production. Automation plays a major role in making this move back to Finland possible in the first place.

Ultimately, the pandemic did not damage our company’s situation; quite the contrary. During the pandemic years, we proved that we’re a force to be reckoned with and have major growth potential. In just a couple of years, we grew our personnel from a handful of employees to a staff of two dozen. We’ve tapped into a brand-new way to examine our activities and future. We have more faith in our company now than ever before.

Major partnerships

With this renewed trust in the future, we’ve also gained the courage to increase our cooperation with major industry players. We became a KUKA Official System Partner in 2020 and signed an OMRON Certified Partner deal in 2021. In the spring of 2022, we also became the official European distributor of Unitree Robotics, and our cooperation with Cajo Technologies, a pioneer in laser marking technologies, began in the same year.

We’ve also further expanded our cooperation with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Oulu University of Applied Sciences, the University of Oulu and other educational institutions.

Jobs for humans and jobs for robots

We believe that technology can be used for almost any task. It can solve working-life challenges in many fields. In fact, our mission is to make robots a part of work communities. We also believe that there are jobs for humans and other jobs for robots. Robots aren’t here to take people’s jobs. Instead, they will serve as tools and a source of help alongside humans. This gives people the freedom to focus on work that requires creativity and humanity. Robots improve productivity and lead to better occupational safety and well-being. The point of robotics is absolutely not to take people’s jobs but to create new ones, thanks to improved profitability.

We believe that technology can be used for almost any task. Today, robotics provides highly functional and reliable solutions that will pay for themselves in no time.

At this point, it is clear that robotics is the direction in which we’re inevitably heading. After all, the content of work has significantly changed within the past 20 years – and will continue to do so in the future. Today, robotics provides highly functional and reliable solutions that will pay for themselves in no time.

New assembly facility increases opportunities

This winter, a new assembly facility will be completed for Probot Oy. The facility will be a major addition to our current premises. The new facility will provide us with 400 m² of more production space. This will enable us to take a new leap in growing the company, as we’ll be able to take on even bigger projects. Thanks to the facility, we’ll also have more space in our offices, which enables us to recruit new employees when necessary.

At Probot, we believe that our staff will continue to grow in the next five years, and we’ll expand our export activities in addition to our domestic sales. Our vision is also to introduce our own mobile robotics products into the market.

Probot Oy – Specialist in Robotics.