Tell Us About Your Company
As an Angel Investor, I have a number of active investments at any one time, but one of the most exciting at the moment is Battalion Technologies. Battalion is a South African designer and manufacturer of Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) for warehousing, logistics, and manufacturing. Right now, they’re a pinnacle in South African innovation, driving global standards across a range of fronts. Their product suite includes automated reach trucks, pallet stackers, pallet trucks, shuttles, and towing bots, using AI as it was intended to be: a practical solution for real-world efficiency problems.
What Do You Think Makes Your Offering Unique?
With Battalion, it is the agility and the innovation. Battalion’s AGVs/AMRs use AI-driven navigation, which combines laser and magnetic sensors for guidance – at high levels of precision. This is advanced technology used to create solutions that aren’t just gimmicks, technology for the sake of technology, but fully autonomous systems designed for safety, reliability, and adaptability in demanding industrial environments. They deliver high operational impact, with the potential to significantly reduce labour costs and reassign human capital to higher-value tasks. At the same time, they improve productivity, accuracy, and safety in warehouse and factory operations. As far as I’m aware – no one else is doing this with such precision, skill, and success with the competitive cost base of South Africa.
Battalion also has a marked competitive advantage, in that it offers locally engineered, cost-effective solutions with international-grade performance. This is supported by a nimble, expert team who are able to adapt quickly to evolving customer needs and technological trends.
How Has Your Offering and Approach Evolved?
Battalion has largely stayed true to its original vision, so the main points of evolution have been scope and scale. AI and automation technology are advancing almost daily, and the Battalion team are part of that movement. The company is already seen as a leader in integrating neural networks and real-time environmental sensing into industrial vehicles – that’s why it featured in South Africa’s Top 10 Startups to Watch (2025). It’s a pioneer in robotics and automation, which is exactly what it set out to do. Now, the aim is to do a lot more of the same, enhancing and innovating as it goes.
What Can We See from Your Company In the Future?
Next on the agenda for Battalion is scaling into Europe. The business already has strong European commercial relationships, but that’s really just a foundation to be built upon. The global demand for automation is accelerating, driven partly by labour shortages, rising wages, and the demand for resilient supply chains – analysts project double-digit annual growth in AGV adoption worldwide. Battalion is already ahead of the majority of the market, so it has a waiting customer base.
Battalion also has the potential to expand its offering into other related areas of the AI-enabled logistics ecosystems, such as integrating robotics, data, and smart infrastructure. I’m seeing a really exciting future for this business.
