Leading New Ventures to Build Commercial Service Robotics Solutions
An interview with Katya Akudovich, Vice President, New Ventures
Helen Dwight (Helen): Good morning, Katya, and thank you for joining me today. You’ve been with SoftBank Robotics America (SBRA) for over 6 years and are currently responsible for New Ventures. What does that entail?
Katya Akudovich (Katya): Hi Helen, it’s great to be here. My focus is on the investment in and development of new solutions that create specific scalable outcomes and value for the market. I envision new scenarios and use cases where robots could operate but commercially viable solutions may not exist today, and those solutions entail working with a variety of partners and founders to ideate on strategy and new technologies.
LEADING NEW VENTURES
Helen: I’m curious, how do you decide which new ventures to start and what are some of the key considerations for you? It’s a huge responsibility to place the right bets -no?
Katya: I start by identifying massive tasks that enterprises perform globally and do economic analysis on the value vs cost of these tasks today. I then identify those that are prime for automation and look for robotic solutions globally at the price point that the market can consume today.
Crucially, I pressure test the economics, target market, and business model early, focusing on industries with significant potential and a concentrated set of major players; fewer decision makers mean faster adoption and a clearer path to capturing market share.
Execution hinges on matching the right technology and commercialization model to specific tasks, then building partnerships that unlock integration, service, and scale. I prefer larger, higher value machines because they offer more room for margin and program viability.
Pricing must be disciplined: For example, the robot and any aftermarket autonomous kit should align to the machine’s value, with kits priced appropriately relative to the host asset. If kits exist, we assess whether to buy, invest, or build; if not, we decide whether to partner. SBRA has the benefit of being OEM agnostic. That gives us the opportunity to consider partnering with one or multiple firms to accelerate integration or support through existing infrastructure.
In the majority of cases, we choose partnership over working alone - the combined capability produces richer outcomes and higher market value for everyone involved.
Helen: Once you have determined a business approach, how easy is it to get other companies to work with you?
Katya: At SBRA, we’ve repeatedly brought the essential strategic players to the table - whether it's OEMs, integrators, service providers, or data platform providers - to deliver business value.
The goal is simple and non-negotiable: deliver measurable outcomes for the client. That requires aligning incentives, clarifying roles, and setting the cadence so every participant is accountable to the same business result.
At scale, orchestration is the differentiator. Large deployments demand multiple robotic systems and supporting technologies to work as one. SBRA operates as the trusted business and technical orchestrator, designing the architecture, governing integration, and de-risking adoption, so autonomy becomes part of daily operations.
When everyone is focused on a shared outcome, execution accelerates, ROI is improved dramatically, and clients feel the value where it counts: in consistent performance, efficiency, and growth.
ORCHESTRATING OPPORTUNTIES WITH A FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER
Helen: It sounds too good to be true. Too often one party wants more from a deal than another or when multiple parties are involved, there is a lot of ‘finger pointing’ when things go wrong. What do you look for in a partner(s) to avoid this?
Katya: I start with Go-to-Market and an honest view of what we know—and, very importantly, what our partners know better. You must listen to your customer/partner intently. They are the industry experts. Their insights often provide answers to the test way ahead of time. Then we introduce SBRA’s deep robotics and innovation muscle. In every industry, whether it's agriculture, entertainment, or senior living, we team with industry experts who live the workflows, see where the market is headed, and want to lead or be more innovative or more competitive in the market or all of the above. Our expertise is in bringing a fresh, outcome driven perspective that helps established players innovate with confidence when they know they must adapt but aren’t sure where to begin.
The robot isn’t the hard part—it’s a commodity. The most important and the hardest part is orchestrating how value is created and captured. That means having a partner who understands how things work today and has a vision for the future. A partner that can pair industry insight with the right tech, align incentives across multiple robotics providers, and settle questions about operating systems, services, and support before they become a friction point.
We frontload alignment on business models and interests, so the likelihood of execution is smoother, partnerships are more durable, and the solution delivers value for everyone involved—most importantly the customer.
Helen: Could you provide a practical example of how you mediate and orchestrate new ventures with multiple partners?
Katya: First, I insist on one unified system to track and schedule work across the enterprise. Without it, you can’t see, steer, or scale. From there, my job is expectation management: balancing intent, aligning incentives, and keeping every stakeholder anchored to a shared outcome. Misaligned incentives hinder or worse case, kill adoption, especially in service operations where robots intersect with live human workflows. So, we re-align —sometimes across what might be considered “competing” or “mismatched” companies — until value is mutual and measurable.
I leverage the strengths of both sides of the ecosystem. Smaller firms bring agility and new, relevant tech; through the SoftBank Vision Fund, SBRA has rapid access to interesting, complementary innovators. Larger companies bring the infrastructure, capital, and staying power required to integrate multiple robotic systems at scale. The art is creating both the perception and proof of value for everyone involved which involves clear ROI narratives, transparent governance, and a cadence that builds trust.
Ultimately, SBRA wins when our partners win. I operate as an orchestrator and mediator keeping the focus squarely on the end customer while designing incentives that make collaboration the rational choice.
With delicate mediation and radical transparency, we convert potential friction into durable partnerships, and turn complex, multi-robot deployments into cohesive systems that deliver enterprise-grade outcomes.
SCALING NEW VENTURES TO DELIVER BUSINESS VALUE
Helen: Once you’ve developed the initial pilot and everything works as it should, what are the considerations? What is initially involved in scaling from e.g. 5 to 5,000 robots?
Katya: Autonomy isn’t new; scaling it sustainably is. Proving a prototype with 20 robots is straightforward—the real work is turning dozens into thousands with the right price points, business model, and cross industry task fit. That demands disciplined supply chain execution (parts, vendors, timing, locations), robust support and maintenance, and an interoperability layer so different robotic systems communicate and operate as one. It also requires human to robot collaboration by design: understanding the environment, tasks, and procedures so people and machines work seamlessly. This is exactly how we approached the introduction of Whiz.
The path to scale is partnerships with the right shape and incentives. Pure tech teams often lack the operational muscle to manufacture and deploy at volume, so we pair similar sized operators willing to share risk, and we engage market leaders for reach, distribution, and relationships—always being mindful that monopoly dynamics can slow innovation. We align incentives early, codify shared risk, and prove value within a single industry before replicating across adjacent industries through established channels. As technology advances, we revisit older concepts with better economics and capability.
The goal is durable scale: cohesive systems, transparent governance, and a workforce empowered to deliver outcomes with robots as integral co-workers.
Helen: How long does it take to go from initial idea to development and GTM for a jointly funded initiative with a partner? What are some of the considerations?
Katya: The ideal timeframe for moving from demo/pilot to world-class production build product including partnership and orchestration is around 9–18 months. This ensures relevance and alignment with business cycles and market conditions that don’t wait. The decision to go live is a deliberate trade-off: ship at 80–85% and iterate with market feedback or hold for a 99.9% fit when brand equity is non‑negotiable. For some brands, protecting their brand reputation is worth a later launch; for others, competitive pressure and valuation optics might demand earlier presence in the category to signal innovation.
Our job is to calibrate risk, not avoid it. We share risk with similarly sized partners, de-risk what we can, and align to the client’s risk profile. Some leaders will move faster—especially when incumbents risk being outmaneuvered by new entrants.
At the end of the day, it is all about orchestration: timing, capability, and brand integrity synchronized so the market sees progress, the product earns trust, and the business captures value within a window that matters.
EXPECTATION SETTING – CONSUMER VS. COMMERCIAL ROBOTS
Helen: Many people may have household robots like Roomba from iRobot.
How do robots, in general, differ in a commercial, enterprise scale setting? And what should customers expect?
Katya: The market expects robots to be instantly functional and always available—an expectation shaped by consumer experiences with the home devices you mentioned. In commercial and industrial settings, that “open the box and forget it” mindset needs to be forgotten and re-set.
High capacity, high functioning robots demand intentional maintenance from day one. And if the desired outcome is consistent performance with high uptime, there must be clear training and operating rhythms. It is important to manage expectations proactively: commercial robots are not consumer appliances; they are enterprise assets with higher capability, greater complexity, and defined service requirements.
I’m unapologetically bullish on maintaining high expectations for enterprise scale robotics—they should raise the bar on efficiency and outcomes. But our desires must always be paired with operational reality. At SBRA, we anchor success in transparency and discipline: educating teams, setting the right maintenance cadence, and building programs that treat robots like the critical assets they are. When expectations, training, and service are aligned, organizations unlock durable value instead of chasing short-lived wins.
DELICATE MEDIATION – DELIVERING VALUE FOR CUSTOMERS FIRST
Helen: The role that SBRA plays in bringing partners together to genuinely deliver customer value from the automation project first and foremost is almost unheard of in business today. How do you go about this delicate mediation approach?
Katya: I take a consultative approach that starts with listening. I diagnose the business first, then deploy robotics as a lever to improve outcomes—not as the headline. Clients carry embedded expertise and constraints shaped by their industry; my role is to surface blind spots, reframe assumptions, and translate their expertise into practical, innovative solutions that move the metrics that drive the business.
The same rigor applies to partners. Before we begin any joint evaluation, we align upfront on goals, success criteria, relative scale and capabilities, risk appetite, and governance. Clear roles, shared incentives, and a staged plan from pilot to production de-risks execution and keeps everyone accountable to the outcome.
When clients, partners, and technology are orchestrated around a common purpose and value, we deliver results that are repeatable, scalable, and durable.
More Information:
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