Avidbots, one of the world’s leading robotics companies, announced today the promotion of Varvara Alva to Chief Operating Officer, responsible for leading the company’s manufacturing, operations, customer care and engineering teams. Alva has over 20 years of leadership experience in building and scaling technology companies through private and public ownership. In addition to her new role as COO, Alva will continue to serve as Chief Financial Officer, an executive position she has held since April of 2023.
“Varvara is a talented and experienced leader who has been instrumental in driving financial strategy and increasing financial and operational rigor across our business,” said Faizan Sheikh, CEO and co-founder at Avidbots. “In her expanded role, Varvara will lead our efforts to sharpen our focus on Avidbots’ customer-centric strategy and drive growth, shorten time to market for our next generation robots, and improve scalability of our operations.”
Avidbots is also promoting Bob Schmalhofer to Senior Vice President of Manufacturing, Operations and Customer Care. Schmalhofer, along with Devin Nelson, Vice President of Engineering, will now both report to Alva.
“By combining the COO and CFO roles, I will have greater opportunity to integrate Avidbots’ finance, operations, and engineering functions as we continue to build a world-class autonomous robotics company,” said Alva. “I am excited to step into this new role and collaborate with such great leaders as Bob, Devin and their teams.”
Avidbots has had significant market traction during 2023 across warehousing, manufacturing, and retail market segments in the U.S. and Canada. Its current Neo 2 and Neo 2W robots are purpose-built autonomous cleaning robots that come with market leading proprietary autonomy software, fleet management and reporting tools, as well as 24/7 customer support. Building on the strength of the Neo product line, Avidbots is now gearing up to launch Kas, a smaller autonomous scrubbing robot in the first half of 2024.
About Avidbots
Avidbots is a robotics company with a vision to make robots ubiquitous to unlock humanity’s potential with a hyperfocus on autonomous cleaning. Their groundbreaking product, the Neo autonomous floor scrubbing robot, is deployed around the world and trusted by leading facilities and building service companies. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Kitchener, ON, Canada, Avidbots offers comprehensive service and support to customers on five continents. Avidbots is backed by top global venture capital firms, including Jeneration Capital, BDC Capital, BMO Capital Partners, GGV Capital, Golden Ventures, Golden Vision Capital, Kensington Capital Partners, Next 47, Nicola Wealth, SOSV and True Ventures. For more information, visit Avidbots.com.
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