German equipment making giant Jungheinrich has acquired a stake in Navflex, a technology company which has developed AI and automated technology for the loading and unloading of trucks and warehouse pallet transport.

Navflex, founded in Germany in 2021, is a tech company which develops autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) they say think, drive and work like humans, with a focus on truck loading and unloading automation.

Jungheinrich acquires stake in Navflex

Now headquartered in Colorado, Navflex’s technology is deployed in North America and Europe.

According to Jungheinrich, it combines advanced perception, AI-driven decision-making, safety-first autonomy and a fleet which learns together to “operate in dynamic, unstructured environments without remote operators”.

Jungheinrich says the acquisition of a stake – the percentage and value of which have not been disclosed – strengthens the existing partnership between the two “with the goal of bringing an autonomous solution for one of the last non-automated core processes in intralogistics to market”.

Development is currently focused on the requirements of the European and North American markets.

“Loading and unloading trucks is a key bottleneck in the material flow for many of our customers,” says Dr Tobias Harzer, chief automation officer of Jungheinrich AG. “Together with Navflex, we are developing a solution that specifically addresses this process and reliably automates it.

“In addition to robustness, compactness, and manoeuvrability at the loading dock, we place particular emphasis on safety – especially in environments where humans and machines operate side by side.”

The joint solution is based on an industrialised vehicle platform from Jungheinrich that is being consistently further developed for automated operation at the loading dock.

The result is an autonomous mobile solution tailored to the requirements of variable dock environments, which can be integrated into existing logistics processes without additional infrastructure.

“We deliberately chose to tackle a problem that was long considered hardly automatable,” says Chuck Stovall, CEO of Navflex. “To enter the European market, we need a partner that can deliver industrial execution, scaling, and global service. This is exactly where Navflex and Jungheinrich complement each other.

“In automation and AI, our partnership is truly 1 plus 1 equals 3.”

The Jungheinrich Group is one of the world's leading suppliers of industrial trucks, warehousing technology and materials flow technology. In

Global distribution flows are on the increase: the transport sector is dominated by a high level of mobility and flexibility - with the result that made-to-measure, all-round solutions are rapidly replacing classic product ranges. Jungheinrich's response to this development has been the introduction of a modern, broadly-based array of products underpinned by an outstanding range of services.

The Jungheinrich Group produces in four plants: ourplant, located in's green belt; the Lüneburg plant, also close to;  Moosburg plant and an assembly plant in Qingpu ().

Jungheinrich's direct sales network incomprises 17 sales/distribution centres and subsidiaries. We have sales and service companies in a further 31 countries, and operate dealer distribution networks in a number of countries, including,and. In Europe alone there are over 100 Jungheinrich centres, covering the continent fromto, and fromto.

Jungheinrich offers a close-knit after-sales service network: highly-qualified Jungheinrich service engineers guarantee the high availability of our forklifts. Two spare parts logistics centres offer "in-night" shipping of spare parts, i.e. guaranteed delivery of parts during the night fromthroughout,and the Benelux countries; and from Lahr nearthroughout,,and

Jungheinrich has developed a brand positioning that focuses even more on the success of our customers. The company paved the way for this repositioning by its courageous and future-oriented concentration on a single brand - Jungheinrich - and by creating highly effective direct sales channels. To tie in with the company's 50th anniversary we have driven the brand position even further forward and have refocused all advertising measures. All these efforts have one goal: to convince the customer that Jungheinrich is a valuable partner.

Jungheinrich has developed a brand position, which places customers' success even more in the limelight than before. The company with its brave and future-oriented concentration on one single brand - Jungheinrich - and direct distribution created the basis of this new positioning. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the company has further developed its brand positioning and given its advertising appearance a new direction. And all of this with one aim in mind. Customers should be convinced: Jungheinrich - well worthwhile.