About

MotionLayer designs and manufactures compact motor controllers, integrated actuators, and open-source robot platforms for embodied AI and advanced robotics. Founded in 2020 under the Tinymovr brand and incorporated as an IKE in March 2026, the company serves customers in over 30 countries across Europe, Asia, and North America. MotionLayer is an NVIDIA Inception member and its products have been cited in peer-reviewed research (IROS 2023, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters). The company sells direct through its own storefront (motionlayer.company) and has been profitable from day one, with consistent year-over-year growth. MotionLayer's ambition is to become the reference motion infrastructure layer for modern robotics, designing hardware, producing research-grade systems, and licensing designs to manufacturers at scale.

Solution & Product

MotionLayer builds the motioninfrastructure for the next generation of intelligent robots. Our current lineup includes: Tinymovr R5.3, a 25A FOC motor controller with integrated encoder and CAN bus (36x40mm); Tinymovr M5.2, a compact gimbal controller; the Axion integrated actuator (BLDC motor + planetary reducer + controller); CANine, an OSHWA-certified USB-C to CAN adapter; the Nano CAN Shield, the first and only Arduino Nano CAN expansion board in its class; and ML-101, an OSHWA-certified open-source leader arm for VLA teleoperation. In development for 2026: next-generation controllers (Tinymovr M6, U6), the Axion X actuator series, and a Jetson Orin Nano carrier board with EtherCAT master, hardware timestamping, and IMU/force-sensor inputs — purpose-built for NVIDIA-based embodied AI systems. All products are sold direct-to-customer through our online storefront, with full open documentation at tinymovr.readthedocs.io.

Innovation & Scalability

The robotics industry is at an inflection point: vision-language-action models (VLAs) from labs like Google DeepMind and Physical Intelligence enable robots trained from human demonstration rather than hand-coded motion planning, while NVIDIA, Tesla, Figure AI, and 1X are investing billions into embodied AI. Every one of these systems needs motion control hardware, whereas existing options are either industrial products built for factories or hobbyist boards without deterministic control. MotionLayer is the only company building an integrated hardware stack — from 22mm controllers to integrated actuators to Jetson carrier boards to open-source teleoperation arms — purpose-built for the teams training the next generation of robots. Our model scales in three ways: direct hardware sales to a global customer base, open-source designs that seed an ecosystem and standard, and licensing of designs to manufacturers for high-volume production. Because our hardware is compact, standardized, and software-defined, each new robotic application expands our addressable market without redesign.

Traction & achievements

Thousands of units shipped to 30+ countries across Europe, Asia, and North America, with strong year-over-year growth every year since launch Profitable from day one, fully bootstrapped — no external capital raised Customers include leading research labs and robotics companies — including MIT CSAIL, Wing Aviation (Alphabet), Agile Robots, and CERTH (remove names if you consider these sensitive — "leading research labs and robotics companies across three continents" works on its own) Accepted into the NVIDIA Inception Program (January 2026), validating our positioning as the motion execution layer for Jetson-based embodied AI Cited in peer-reviewed research: IROS 2023 (Clemson University), IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 2025, and TU Munich research on assistive exosuits Three OSHWA-certified open-source hardware designs Registered in the Elevate Greece national startup registry (2026)

Team & Why Us

MotionLayer was founded by Yannis Chatzikonstantinou, PhD in Design Informatics (TU Delft), with prior robotics research at CERTH and 8+ years designing motor control hardware and firmware. He is the sole designer of all MotionLayer products across electrical, mechanical, and firmware domains — a vertically integrated capability that lets the company move from concept to shipped product faster and at lower cost than teams many times its size. Why us: we are the only company offering an integrated motion stack for embodied AI, with products shipping today, peer-reviewed research citations, a global customer base spanning research labs to industrial robotics, and a profitable, capital-efficient operating history. The opportunity is to scale this into the standard motion infrastructure layer for embodied AI.

Funding Needs

MotionLayer has been profitable since inception and funds its operations and R&D entirely from operating cash flow — we have no immediate funding requirement. That said, we are open to strategic, non-dilutive funding (e.g., R&D grants, ΕΣΠΑ programs, innovation vouchers) to accelerate three growth initiatives: (1) scaling production capacity to meet growing international demand; (2) completing our 2026 product roadmap: next-generation controllers, the Axion X actuator series, and the Jetson Orin Nano carrier board; and (3) making our first engineering hires to expand beyond a founder-led team. We are equally open to strategic partnerships with manufacturers for licensing our designs at scale.