Tennant

Tennant is a developer of cleaning equipment targeting several industries including retail, healthcare, government institutions, manufacturing, and warehousing. The company’s core business includes floor cleaning equipment with solutions such as detergent-free electrolyzed water. Tennant recorded sales of USD 1.14 billion in 2019 and employs approximately 4,400 people. As of September 2020, the company was selling directly in 15 countries and selling through distribution in over 100 countries.

In 2018, the company introduced an autonomous floor cleaning robot unit in which the artificial intelligence (AI) software was powered by Brain Corp’s (developer of AI software for autonomous robots) BrainOS. In April 2019, the company entered into a partnership with Walmart to supply 1,500 cleaning robots. Further, in October 2020, the company entered into a partnership with 1) Schnuck Markets (a family-owned grocery retailer operating 112 stores in several midwestern states) to deploy Tennant robotic scrubbers in more than half of its stores by the end of 2020 and 2) with Sam’s Club (Walmart's membership-only retail warehouse clubs) to deploy additional 372 floor scrubbers in its chain of stores. Both the Schnucks and Sam’s Club robots AI software will be provided by Brain Corp.

In April 2022, Tennant announced the introduction of lithium-ion battery technology for its robots including the T380AMR, T7AMR, and T16AMR. The new technology reportedly improves productivity by increasing the cleaning time by up to 25% to 60% (lithium-ion AMRs can operate between 5-6.5 hours compared to lead-acid batteries that operate around 4 hours) and by reducing maintenance time, allows opportunity charging to charge the machine at any time (even when the battery is not fully discharged) without the risk of battery degrading, improves safety, and promotes sustainability.