Investor Snapshot

Travelmate Robot Companion & Futuristic Suitcase

The Travelmate’s autonomous functionality is unmatched and doesn’t require any extra peripherals. All you need is the suitcase and your smartphone, and Travelmate will follow you wherever you go. It’s fully TSA compliant and IATA approved. It is the only robot suitcase allowed on all airlines. So whether you’re at the airport, going to work or going to school, the Travelmate suitcase can help you carry luggage in a wide range of situations.

Thanks to smart features and our patented Follow Me system with built-in sensors, Travelmate can navigate large crowds and avoid common obstacles like people and furniture. It also moves vertically and horizontally with ease, and can carry another suitcase or other items on top when traveling autonomously in horizontal mode.

We’ve worked on the Travelmate project for 3 years. Our team of experienced robotics engineers are passionate about integrating robots into the daily lives of people. In order to turn science fiction into reality, we set about making an accessible type of robot that everyone can use. Instead of something impractical and incredibly expensive, we wanted to make a robot form that can have as many uses as possible. That’s why we decided that the suitcase is the perfect form factor. We designed Travelmate to have the functionality of a robot assistant and have it be able to carry your stuff for you.

When the first smartphones arrived on the market, most people didn’t understand the point of having a phone that had a touch screen and did other things. Surely we don’t need to tell you how big the smartphone market is now. People understand that a smartphone is a multipurpose supercomputer that fits into your pocket.  Travelmate will do the same thing for consumer robotics by using a relatable and practical form (a self moving suitcase) to show people how robotics fits into their lives.

Travelmate is affordable and can already be purchased online. Our success from past crowdfunding efforts and pre-sales from distributors have helped us scale production, expand our team and establish distribution channels. We now wish to scale up manufacturing gradually from 5,000 units per month to 100,000 units per month within a period of one year. To do so however, will require your help.

We are on track for profitability this year and with your investment we can purchase long-lead-time inventory, and fulfill larger orders. Funds raised on StartEngine will also be used to purchase the necessary equipment for manufacturing, including necessary injection molds, long lead time inventory, and assembly equipment. We also require proprietary testing equipment, which will allow us to check units on a much quicker basis.

We are excited to bring robots of the future into the present with your help. So from all of us at Travelmate Robotics, we thank you very much for your support!

“Our goal is for Travelmate to become the first widely available and affordable robot companion.”

Smarter than Smart – It’s a Robot Companion

We are creating a new industry with robotic suitcases.

With Travelmate we’re not just innovating with an interesting new type of luggage, we’re creating the first ever multi-purpose robot platform that is mass produced (like a Ford Model T version of R2-D2). We have fitted all of the electronic, mechanical and plastic components of the robot into 5% of the total volume of Travelmate; leaving 95% of the robot free space!

Unlike other “smart” suitcases on the market that only provide a mobile charging station for your smart devices, Travelmate is the first to use integrated adaptive AI to let it know where it’s going at all times. Travelmate is truly autonomous and improves by uploading movement data automatically to the Travelmate application and looking at data from all other Travelmate suitcases to improve its movement, actions and response time.

Your suitcase will essentially become smarter and smarter as time goes on and more people have Travelmate suitcases (this feature can be disabled in the app if you wish). This principal has been applied before to other technology, but we are the first to do it for suitcases.

Travelmate can also be used as a guide for the visually impaired or as a robot friend who can respond to simple commands should you choose to turn this feature on. And if you need to video blog or record yourself and your surroundings, you can mount a camera or 360 degree VR ready camera to the Travelmate to use as your always-ready camera operator.

Designed to Evolve

Created by a team of robotics specialists, our goal is for Travelmate to eventually become the first widely available and affordable robot companion. We encourage this by personalizing the experience and letting you give your Travelmate a name which appears in the display, and letting you select its LED light configurations. To do so requires using one of our most crucial elements of the Travelmate—the Travelmate smartphone application.

We’ve worked hard to make the Travelmate application easy to use and feature rich. We plan to update the free app regularly with improvements and add features such as Alexa Voice Assistant capabilities, travel suggestions, airport information, airport gate information, augmented reality games and even medical assistance functionality for health monitoring.

As software designers and engineers, we believe the best advances are made when users have the freedom to do whatever they want. That’s why we made the Travelmate application completely open to developers using an open platform  to foster community and improve Travelmate in ways we could never imagine. So design your own feature or add one through our community of developers on our Travelmate application.

Ahead of the Game

What many startups fail to realize is that the hardest part is not the development of a prototype unit. It is actually the transitioning into and management of the mass production process. This is especially true for robotics.

There is a reason for why no other big suitcase company has even attempted to do what we are doing. It’s because they simply can’t do it and they don’t have the manufacturing know how to do it. This problem is also evident in the general robotics industry. Most robots are still not mass-produced because of the level of sophistication that is required to make them.

We’ve been able to accomplish the transition into mass manufacturing partly because of our past experience in robotics and partly because of our experience in mass manufacturing. There are currently 12 factories that provide us with a total of 64 different electronic and mechanical Travelmate components. Three of which also do various stages of assembly for the product. In total, there are more than 80 components for Travelmate and more than 50 suppliers.

As you can imagine, this was an immense task to accomplish and it took us almost two years to develop relationships with our main and backup suppliers and manufacturers in China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Czech Republic and Ukraine. This clearly sets us apart from other startups and most other new tech companies, as we have a solid manufacturing base that we can use to expand in order to meet demand.

The Right Size and Weight for Travel

Feature Rich

In addition to its fully autonomous horizontal and vertical modes, the Travelmate has a variety of useful features that other suitcases do not have:

• Removable battery charged with wireless technology.
• The battery can charge almost all electronics through  two USB ports and a USB type C port.
• Replaceable wheels, which allow you to put on different wheels for different environments. The standard wheels are all terrain. There will be multiple wheel types, including omni wheels and off road wheels.
• AI and machine learning
• Since the suitcase functions as a robot in practice, it uses AI and machine learning to optimize its movements.
• 4 hour battery life in full autonomous mode and up to 100 hours in stand-by mode (meaning when you are using it like a normal suitcase)
• Customizable multi-colored LED lighting with over 16 million different color variations
• Used to signal your suitcase’s battery level. Customize or turn off through the Travelmate application
• Directional Indicators (similar to turn signals in cars) so you know where it’s going
• Speakers to inform you of obstacles and suitcase’s location (can be turned on or off)
• Use as external bluetooth speakers
• Customizable design
• Smart Lock Syste: You can  unlock your suitcase with your smartphone
• Built-in scale
• Customizable interior. You will be able to replace the interior fabric inside with other types of materials. This is because you can unzip the internal fabric in the suitcase. These accessories will include different designs, colors and patterns.

TSA Compliant and Ready to Board

Travelmate is fully TSA compliant and our suitcase sizes are standardized. The smallest Travelmate is carry-on-sized and fits the specifications of all major airlines’ requirements for carry on specifications. The Travelmate has a smart lock system that lets you open your suitcase directly or through your smartphone. In order to comply with TSA guidelines, we have also included a mechanism to manually open the suitcase. You can always add a separate lock to your suitcase for extra security.

Travelmate includes a GPS chip that helps orient the suitcase and allows you to know the location of the suitcase at all times with the Travelmate smartphone application.

Word is Out and Spreading

Over 3,000 articles have been written about us and numerous awards/accolades (including best product at the Travel Goods Show for 2018). We believe in continuing our marketing strategy of growing our brand recognition and innovating to create more functionality with each Travelmate robot. We are synonymous with robotic luggage and will continue to have that advantage due to extensive continuing media coverage of our product.

We have great social media and press outreach which we will continue to utilize. You will also soon be seeing Travelmate roll across your small and large screens, on cable programs and upcoming studio films.

Travelmate Robotics has won numerous awards and has been featured worldwide in conventions, presentations and in museums. Our product is so innovative, that it has even been praised by numerous government organizations.

Travelmate Robotics won overall first place at the 2018 Travel Goods Innovation Awards. This was for the Travel Goods Show, which is the largest convention for the Travel industry. We beat many industry heavyweights to get this award – this includes companies like Samsonite, Coach, Delsey, Tumi, Louis Vuitton, Rimowa and more.

In France, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Innovation invited us to showcase our robot at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie. This is the largest science and technology museum in France.

We were the biggest highlight at CES Las Vegas in 2018. Many articles came out to that effect, saying that this year, we were the biggest standout.

The government of Barcelona and the Tourism minister of Catalonia invited us to do a presentation in collaboration with Eurocat ( a non-profit organization). You can see that presentation over on our youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9YhTG8l_MI&t=79s

We did further presentations in South Korea, Japan, Italy and the United States.

The Market

*A 1 billion plus potential market for robotic assistants and autonomous suitcases. 

In the U.S. alone, the revenue for the regular suitcase and briefcase segment is expected to total (Statista, 2018) and is expected to grow annually by 0.3% (CAGR 2019-2023). But because our product is not just a suitcase, we are also in the consumer robotics market,  which continues to grow as technology advances. According to Market Research Future, the global consumer robots market is estimated to generate a CAGR of 19.0 % to reach $17 billion during the forecast period ending 2023.

Our conservative estimate is that there is demand for at least 1 million robot suitcases based on market conditions and expressed interest from companies. Currently, we’re the only robotic suitcase on the market that is allowed on all airlines and our movement system is patented.

We believe that we can meet this demand by expanding our manufacturing capabilities to produce more than 5,000 units per month. With this, we can tap into our existing user base of interested distributors around the world to take full advantage of this new market.

Who Needs a Travelmate?

Currently we are targeting travellers, early adopters of technology and robot enthusiasts between the ages of 25 – 50. We also expect the Travelmate to be used by the visually and physically impaired as well as social media influencers and content creators who need an ever-ready camera operator. But we hope to reach a larger consumer base in time.

When the iPhone was first announced, many didn’t understand the point of it. A lot of people assumed it was just a phone that had a touch screen. Verizon refused to carry it in the United States because it didn’t see a market for it. A mistake that Verizon isn’t keen on repeating again. Of course now, Apple dominates the market that it created with modern smartphones. Most people can’t live without smartphones and these little devices are portable supercomputers that fit into your pocket. We hope to do the same for robotics.

In order for robots to be adopted by the everyday consumer, they need to be versatile, adaptable and affordable—the polar opposite of robotics on the market today (especially single task robots used in manufacturing). The Travelmate robot is ideally suited for multiple different uses, including carrying your stuff. Our patented movement system uses artificial intelligence and connects to your smartphone to follow you. In fact, we own the patent for any robot that uses a phone to follow you. Since it is connected to your smartphone, it updates through the smartphone app as well.

This enables us to add thousands of features or ‘apps within an app’ for the Travelmate robot. One exciting feature that we’re working on is with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant. Amazon has already approved us to use Alexa for our robot and this will allow users to have a portable robot voice assistant anywhere they go.

This feature requires an internet connection and makes it attractive for mobile companies to bundle their data plans with our product. Verizon and T-mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom are already interested in selling our robots. They can sell our robots through financing, just like they do with smartphones. Meaning that while they buy from us at wholesale price, they would sell to end users through a two-year contract with a small down payment (depending on the user’s credit history).

And because a significant portion of mobile business income comes from mobile data and internet traffic usage,selling the first consumer robot assistant on the market with functionality that enables mobile data use, makes Travelmate a very attractive proposition. To clarify so that there isn’t any potential confusion; Travelmate does not use or need an internet connection to follow you autonomously and fulfill its basic functionality. This is strictly an additional feature that can be added to the robot.

The Travelmate also has a built in sim card slot that all major telecom companies can utilize. So now Travelmate can be added to the data plan market space that is currently made up of phones, tablets and some smart watches.

Current and Future Projects at Travelmate Robotics

We plan to iterate with future versions of Travelmate on a yearly basis. Similar to how new flagship smartphones are introduced. We’re also planning on introducing more accessories and covers for Travelmate.

On a long term basis, we are constantly improving and expanding the software functionality for Travelmate robots. People can update their Travelmates through the included smartphone applicationC. We are planning on implementing an update wherein users who opt in, can have their Travelmate’s usage patterns recorded and sent to us. From there, a machine learning algorithm can sort that data on a massive scale to further improve the robot’s autonomous functionality.

We are working on a few other consumer robotics projects that will be hitting the market within the next three years. Most of the details for these projects is under wraps and is confidential, so because of that, we are limited in what we can describe.

In general, two interesting new projects that we are developing are an autonomous golf trolley and a fully modular universal robotic platform with applications for the medical industry.

Why We Need You

We are in a strong position in terms of our manufacturing stage. However, we need adequate financing to take care of mass manufacturing related costs. We need at least three months lead time for necessary inventory/equipment to arrive after being ordered. By raising equity through StartEngine, we can purchase the initial inventory necessary to take on larger orders.

“Making robots is our passion and our business.”

In the Press

Meet Our Team

Maximillian Kovtun

Leonid Kovtun

Taras Yermakov

CTO

Leo Ryzhenko