About us

This is Brightpick

With over 200 employees and 10 years of development behind us, Brightpick’s AI robots enable companies to easily automate every step of their order fulfillment in weeks.

hq
200

employees

11

nationalities

24

patents

Our mission is to make order fulfillment as efficient and easy as possible.

At Brightpick, we believe in harnessing technology to solve modern-day supply chain challenges. Renowned for our innovative approach in robotics, our team is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of technology to deliver impactful solutions and make our customers’ lives easier.

Our success is intricately linked to that of our customers. We take great pride in seeing our robots enable businesses to thrive in competitive markets. Whether partnering with e-grocers like Rohlik, 3PLs like Netrush, or retailers like MTBIKER, our achievements are reflected in the success of those we serve.

our story

How it began

Brightpick’s journey began in 2013 when PhD students Jan Zizka, Michal Maly and Tomas Kovacovsky partnered to create Photoneo, a pioneer in advanced 3D vision cameras. Photoneo swiftly became a global leader in robotic vision sensors, with over 7000 technology installations worldwide.

Leveraging their experience from Photoneo, the same team founded Brightpick in 2021, aiming to develop the world’s most advanced robotic fulfillment solution.

Today, Brightpick and Photoneo operate under the same unified group. The company’s flagship robot, Brightpick Autopicker, integrates Photoneo’s cutting-edge sensors to power its in-aisle robotic picking.

our culture

What sets us apart

We foster a culture of high accountability and empowerment, where every team member is entrusted with significant responsibilities to make impactful contributions and achieve meaningful results.

We are solution-oriented and work closely together to streamline our customers’ operations. Our approach combines autonomy with a steadfast commitment to operational excellence, ensuring we always deliver high-quality results for our customers.

Leadership Team

zizka

Dr. Jan Zizka

Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder

Dr. Jan Zizka

Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder

Jan is the CEO of Brightpick and its parent company, Photoneo Brightpick Group. He leads the overall strategy for the company and loves keeping his hands full with development and marketing. Before co-founding Brightpick, Jan co-founded and led Photoneo, which scaled to become one of the leading 3D machine vision companies in the world with customers such as General Motors, Volkswagen and Kuka. Prior to that, he was a research engineer at Micro-Epsilon, a leading sensor manufacturer. Jan has filed over 20 patents, ranging from 3D sensing methods to mobile robotics. He earned a PhD in Computer Vision from Comenius University, during which he also did research on computational cameras and optics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

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Tomas Kovacovsky

Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder

Tomas Kovacovsky

Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder

Tomas is responsible for developing and implementing new technologies. His work is what keeps all the Brightpick robots running reliably round the clock. Prior to Brightpick, he co-founded Photoneo and co-developed its patented “Parallel Structured Light” technology as well as over 20 vision systems based on novel computational photography techniques and algorithms. Before that, he was a senior research engineer at Micro-Epsilon, a leading sensor manufacturer. Tomas is an expert in computer vision and robot orchestration software and, in 2017, was recognized in Forbes’ “30 Under 30 Europe” as one of the 30 brightest young entrepreneurs and innovators in the “Industry” segment. He earned a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Comenius University.

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Dr. Michal Maly

Director of AI and Co-founder

Dr. Michal Maly

Director of AI and Co-founder

Michal is responsible for artificial intelligence and machine learning development. He specializes in the construction of rational agents based on reinforcement learning, and has been instrumental in developing Brightpick’s industry-leading robotic picking capabilities. Prior to Brightpick, he co-founded Photoneo, where he also led the AI team, focusing on object recognition, environment mapping and robotic piece picking. Before that, he was a senior systems engineer at AT&T. Michal earned a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science from Comenius University.

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Branislav Pulis

Chief Revenue Officer and Co-founder

Branislav Pulis

Chief Revenue Officer and Co-founder

Branislav leads the international sales team for the company. He enjoys talking with customers to better understand their operational challenges and help them find solutions for their problems. Before co-founding Brightpick, Branislav co-founded Photoneo, where he built up its international sales team and distributor network and scaled the company to become one of the leading 3D vision providers worldwide. Prior to that, he was the Head of Project Management at KBC Group and transformation advisor at T-Mobile. Branislav earned his MS in Accounting from the University of Economics in Bratislava.

cox

James Cox

Chief Commercial Officer

James Cox

Chief Commercial Officer

James is responsible for Brightpick’s growth strategy in North America, where he focuses on customer success pre- and post-contract. He is passionate about growing the US market and is making fast inroads using his 20 years of customer engagement experience in the materials handling and supply chain industries. Before joining Brightpick, he was VP of Sales at Dematic, where he led Dematic’s sales efforts in the Northeast Region, delivering the region’s all-time highest sales in 2021. Prior to that, James was General Manager at Equipment Depot. He earned a BA in Finance from Bowling Green State University and a MBA from Xavier University.

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Adrian Kratky

Chief Operating Officer

Adrian Kratky

Chief Operating Officer

Adrian is responsible for the project management and delivery, manufacturing, customer support and day-to-day operations of the company. Before Brightpick, Adrian was Director of Robot Vision at Photoneo, where he led software development, on-site integrations and customer support. Before joining Photoneo, Adrian spent nine years at Lenovo, most recently as senior manager for incentives and commissions in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Adrian started his career at Accenture as a senior programmer. He earned a MS in Cybernetics from the Slovak University of Technology.

ivana zizkova

Ivana Zizkova

Chief Financial Officer

Ivana Zizkova

Chief Financial Officer

Ivana is the CFO of Brightpick and its parent company, Photoneo Brightpick Group. Prior to this role, she was Director of Finance and Operations at Photoneo since 2018. Before joining Photoneo, Ivana was Finance Team Lead at IBM.
She earned a MS in Economics from the University of Economics in Bratislava.

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Andrey Bakholdin

VP of Growth

Andrey Bakholdin

VP of Growth

Andrey is responsible for developing and executing Brightpick’s business development, marketing and growth strategies. Prior to this role, he was Chief of Staff at Brightpick and worked on corporate strategy, fundraising and investor relations. Before that, he was VP of Investments and Strategy at factory14, a diversified ecommerce platform, and an investment professional at Blackstone, where he invested in private and public markets across the US and Europe. Andrey started his career in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) at Moelis & Company. He earned a BS in economics and econometrics from University College London.

2023

Brightpick launches Brightpick Autopicker, the world’s first commercially-available autonomous mobile picking robot

Brightpick moves headquarters from Europe to the US

2022

Taiwania Capital leads $19M Series B extension and brings the total size of the Series B investment round to $40M

2021

IPM Group and Alpha Intelligence Capital lead $21M Series B investment round

Brightpick is launched as a standalone business unit and the company is renamed to Photoneo Brightpick Group

2020

Photoneo launches MotionCam 3D, the most advanced 3D scanner ever created using a novel patented CMOS sensor

2019

Photoneo develops AI platform for intelligent picking and depalletization applications

Photoneo reaches 1000 technology installations worldwide

2018

Photoneo launches Bin Picking Studio, a versatile robotic software for industrial bin picking applications

Earlybird Venture Capital leads a $9M Series A investment round

2016

Photoneo launches first commercial product, the PhoXi 3D Scanner

2015

Branislav Pulis joins as fourth co-founder to lead the sales organization

Credo Ventures leads a $2M seed investment round

2014

Photoneo is founded by Jan Zizka, Tomas Kovacovsky and Michal Maly, three PhD students at Comenius University specializing in machine vision, physics and AI