Some fields still need automated solutions. One of them is parking lot marking where workers still use manual work and spend a lot of time for marking lines. The team of Estonian startup 10Lines says that their autonomous parking lot marking robot makes striping up to 7 times faster while requiring only a single operator instead of a team of 2 to 4 people. Janno Paas, Co-founder and CTO of the startup tells why their solution must be used in new markets and how the international project Scale-up Champions helped them to boost their business and be ready for scaling to abroad.
Could you tell us more about your business. What is your product?
Our solution is an autonomous parking lot marking robot that uses GNSS positioning fused with other sensors, so it is able to stripe a parking lot without any pre-marking needed.
What problem does your business solve?
The problem of parking lot marking is that it is completely manual work. About 70%of the time is spent on measuring and pre-marking. This means that teams of 2 to 4people are using measuring tapes and chalk lines to pre-mark every beginning and end f the line on the asphalt before the actual lines are being painted. Our robots make striping up to 7 times faster while requiring only a single operator instead of a team of 2 to 4 people. Every 10Lines robot reduces almost 2 tons of CO2 per year.
The background and professional trajectory: How old is your startup? What was the first impulse to start the development of your startup? What were the main stages of your startup?
We have been doing our startup 2,5 years now. As we were active in this field, we saw the pain and we had the experience and the knowledge how to solve it. We also had a company building experience beforehand. The main stages of our startup has been product development, raising an investment and growing and building the team. In the end of last year 10Lines robot painted lines at the national airport of Estonia and painted a full-size parking lot at the Tehnopol Science Park. This validated many of our hypotheses and also gave ground to several technical changes.
Which markets do you target? How did you scale your business abroad? How do you select new markets and what does help you to enter new markets successfully? Which market is the hardest to enter and why?
Our target markets are mainly the USA and Europe. In the US alone there are about800 million parking spaces, and the annual parking lot striping serviceisabout a$6Billionindustry.In the future we are expanding to the siding fields like Airports, Harbours and Road striping. Entering into new markets requires the knowledge of the semarkets. Having localpartners in those markets makes it more easier to enter there. It is worth getting local contacts and going on the spot yourself. For us Asian market isthemostdifficultoneduetothefactthatitisfar and withdifferentculture.
How do you find new partnerships abroad?
Direct contacts work best for us as well as going to the country in person.
10Lines team participated in the Scale-up Champions Investment Readiness programme. What was the biggest value of participating in the programme? Could you describe a few aspects which helped you to grow?
Through market discovery research we gained a lot of new knowledge about the Spanish market and this will help us to be more prepared when entering into the market. We received information about different metrics from different organisations and municipalitiesas well as contacts of several potential clients.
The Investment Readiness: Have you ever tried to attract investments and what was your experience? You mentioned that this programme helped you to learn how to create an interesting profile of a startup for investors and how to pitch your product for them. What tips and tricks were the most valuable for you?
Yes, we have raised a seed round investment(700K) last year and we are getting ready to raise an A-round. We have a strategic investor on-board which help us move forwar aster by sharing valuable contacts from their network. Due to the investment our team has increased 3x within six months, being now 9 people.