Trener Robotics, formerly known as T-Robotics, said it has raised a $32 million Series A round to scale Acteris, its agentic AI platform that brings “physical intelligence” to industrial automation by enabling software-defined control of robots. The round was co-led by Engine Ventures and IAG Capital Partners, with participation from strategic investors Cadence and Geodesic Capital through Nikon’s NFocus Fund. Trener said the financing comes on the heels of its seed round and brings total funding to over $38 million.
The company positions Acteris as a robot-agnostic skills platform that replaces rigid, code-heavy programming with a natural language interface, allowing operators to describe tasks in their own words and convert conversational input into executable automation. Trener said Acteris is trained on visual, haptic, language, and action data to help robots self-learn in complex production environments, including adapting to changing parts and more unstructured shop-floor conditions in real time.
Trener said it will use the new capital to accelerate T-Labs research and development, expand skill training, hire globally, and broaden its market and partner footprint. The company said Acteris is designed to run on equipment manufacturers already own, with continuous improvement driven by production feedback, and it framed its approach as distinct from brittle scripted systems and research-first generalist platforms.
Trener said it has collaborated with more than 15 solutions and integration partners across Europe and the United States and has integrated robot brands including ABB, Universal Robots and FANUC into Acteris. The company also highlighted industry recognition, including winning the Machine Tool Innovation Award at EMO Hannover and being selected as the winner of the ABB AI Startup Challenge.
Trener was co-founded in 2024 by CEO Dr. Asad Tirmizi and CTO Dr. Lars Tingelstad. The company said Tirmizi previously worked at Vicarious, which it described as having been acquired by Google, and contributed to robotics and haptics at ByteDance after a tenure at a European manufacturing research institute, while Tingelstad served as an associate professor of robotic production at NTNU.
KEY QUOTES
“For decades, industrial robotics has been limited by dynamic complexity, confining millions of robotic arms to repetitive, single-purpose tasks in highly controlled environments. We’re fundamentally changing this – transforming robots into intelligent, adaptable teammates by replacing procedural programming with a control system that supports a growing library of production-ready skills. Our go-to-market strategy empowers systems integrators and OEMs with a robot AI skills platform for deploying and controlling robots across diverse industrial environments.”
Dr. Asad Tirmizi, Chief Executive Officer And Co Founder, Trener Robotics
“When we co-led Trener Robotics’ seed round, we saw a team with a clear vision to solve one of automation’s biggest bottlenecks. Their execution and ability to rapidly scale has been remarkable. This traction positions Acteris as the intelligence layer for physical automation and reinforces their ability to scale through partner-led distribution.”
Reed Sturtevant, General Partner, Engine Ventures
“Industrial automation is at an inflection point, with Trener Robotics well-positioned as a platform accessible to manufacturers of all sizes, creating a repeatable path for expanding capabilities beyond CNC machine tending. This is precisely what small and mid-sized enterprises globally need to compete as AI redefines manufacturing.”
Dennis Sacha, Partner, IAG Capital Partners
