DEPLOYDatabase

Company

Karcher

Kärcher is a German family-owned cleaning equipment manufacturer founded in 1935 by Alfred Kärcher, headquartered in Winnenden, Baden-Württemberg.

Founded
1935
HQ
Winnenden, Germany
Status
private (family-owned)

The verified answer

As of Sep 2026, DEPLOY verifies Karcher: 1 model, 1 deployment across 1 region. 2 sources back the record.

Overview

Kärcher is a German family-owned cleaning equipment manufacturer founded in 1935 by Alfred Kärcher, headquartered in Winnenden, Baden-Württemberg. The global market leader in cleaning technology (€3.48B revenue, 17,000 employees, 80+ countries), it develops the KIRA B 50 autonomous cleaning robot and KIRA B 100 R (powered by Brain Corp) for floor scrubbing in warehouses, airports, hospitals, and public facilities.

Verified record

Verified deployments
1 deployment on file
Active incidents
None on file

Key facts

Focus

German cleaning-equipment maker

Robot

KIRA B 50 autonomous floor scrubber

Technology

In-house autonomy using laser scanners, 3D and ultrasonic sensors, and an on-board computer for 360-degree navigation

Founder

Alfred Kärcher (1935, Stuttgart)

Revenue

EUR 3.483 billion (2025); EUR 3.44 billion (2024) — 4.6% YoY growth

Employees

~17,000 worldwide

Global presence

80+ countries

Ownership

Family-owned (Kärcher SE & Co. KG)

KIRA product line

KIRA B 50 (autonomous scrubber, 2022), KIRA B 100 R (Brain Corp-powered, 2024), KIRA CV 50 (autonomous vacuum)

Key partnerships

Brain Corp (powers KIRA B 100 R), InOrbit (fleet management), RobotLAB (distribution)

Data & sources

Web sources

2

2 sources backing this record.View all →

Partnerships

Every company Karcher has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.

1 total1 operating

Most-frequent partners

  1. 1Brain Corp1× joint6 total

Most recent

  1. with Brain Corpoperating

Karcher on the deployment map

View the global map

1 verified deployment across 1 region, newest verified Jun 2024. Explore where Karcher's robots are operating, by place and type.

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View the full Karcher deployment record →

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Relationships

Explainers

Plain-language answers to the questions people ask about Karcher, from DEPLOY’s explainer library. Each is written in the language of the question and cross-checked against this registry.

What are commercial cleaning robots and how do they work?
Commercial cleaning robots are autonomous floor scrubbers, vacuums, and mopping machines deployed in airports, shopping malls, warehouses, hospitals, and office buildings. The category divides along a platform axis: BrainOS-powered robots (Tennant AMR, SoftBank Robotics Whiz) license autonomy software from Brain Corp, while own-stack makers (Avidbots, Gausium, Karcher, LionsBot) develop their navigation internally.Read the full explainer →
What is Karcher and does it make autonomous cleaning robots?
Karcher is a German manufacturer of cleaning equipment and a family-owned private company. The KIRA series (KIRA B 50 and KIRA B 100) are Karcher's autonomous floor scrubbers, using LiDAR SLAM navigation developed in-house rather than BrainOS. Karcher is one of the largest cleaning equipment manufacturers globally by revenue.Read the full explainer →

Current leadership (2)

Founders (1)

See all founders across the registry →

Safety record

No incidents on record for Karcher.

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →

Operator customers (1)

Recent coverage

Karcher in third-party press

Peers

148 peers across 2 segments. Every Karcher competitor derived from shared form-factor and application-domain edges.

service(144)

113 companies in this segment · competitive (HHI 831.3520919269878) · leader Bond at 1957%

cleaning robot(4)