Marin Tchakarov joins Fox Robotics as CEO

Fox Robotics, which describes itself as the world’s first company to create an intelligent forklift that autonomously services the warehouse receiving dock, has announced the appointment of Marin Tchakarov as CEO, president, and member of the Board of Directors. Tchakarov brings nearly 30-years of entrepreneurial and executive technology experience to Fox Robotics. 

In his previous role as CEO of Kindred Systems, Marin delivered on the promise of industry-progressing artificial intelligence, machine learning, and next-generation robotics systems for supply chain and order fulfillment organizations. Marin’s leadership and execution focus led to Kindred’s rapid growth and ultimate acquisition by Ocado Group for a reported $262 million in 2020.

“Marin provides a rare combination of vision, customer focus, and operational excellence that will prove invaluable to expanding on the success Fox has built and lead us into our next phase of innovation and growth,” says Till Reuter, Fox Board Member, and former CEO of KUKA.

“I could not be more excited to join the Fox Robotics team on the journey of developing and deploying the world’s leading autonomous forklift solution,” says Tchakarov.  “The opportunity to build on our existing customer relationships with customers like DHL, among many others, is invaluable in paving the way for scaling our business for the massive growth potential ahead.”

Tchakarov joins Fox Robotics on the heels of an over-subscribed $24 million financing round led by BMW i Ventures, with participation from Menlo Ventures, ENIAC Ventures, SignalFire, Zebra Technologies, Japan Airlines & Translink Innovation Fund, Foothill Ventures, and Autotech Ventures.

Peter Andrerson-Sprecher, the company’s co-founder & current CEO, will assume the role of CTO to oversee the continued development of the company’s product capabilities and machine vision systems. 

“Marin is a world-class leader with deep experience in the industrial autonomy space, and he has the expertise to turbocharge Fox’s rapid growth,” says Anderson-Sprecher. “He is perfectly aligned to our mission to deliver innovative and reliable autonomy to our customers across the warehousing and manufacturing sectors.”