Danish Startup Wins IFOY Industrial Truck of the Year

The Mobile Robot Company, a self-funded nine-person company, won the 2026 IFOY Industrial Truck of the Year. The company launched its J1600, a 1,600-kilogram self-driving pallet jack, on October 20, 2025. It combines manual operation with autonomous delivery in dual mode, while a human always picks up the pallet. The J1600 has a list price of €65,000, which the company says is about half the price of comparable robots.

An Award In Stuttgart

The award was announced in Stuttgart in June while co-founder and CTO Odin Kudahl Skovsted was in Italy with the team demonstrating the robot to prospective customers. CEO Emil Hauch Jensen attended the ceremony alone, surrounded by established manufacturers competing for the award.

“I was kind of shocked. I had honestly no expectation of winning.”

Designed For Warehouse Work

Jensen and Skovsted met in 2018 at Mobile Industrial Robots. Between them they had deployed more than 10,000 robots and reached the same conclusion: the hard part was rarely the robot but the integration around it.

Jensen argues that stopping at 80% to 95% automation avoids the costly engineering that makes full autonomy uneconomic for most warehouses.

“It’s not a philosophy. It’s a limitation that is intentionally designed into the product.”

Building Through Partners

The company sells only through partners and has distributors in eight countries. It publishes its J1600 list price, which is €65,000.

“Everybody can make a dual mode. I don’t think everybody can make it as easy to use and as well designed as us.”

A Longer Term Goal

Jensen treats the trophy from Stuttgart as a proof point, not a finish line.

“Ten years from now, I hope that all the pallet jacks will be either automatic or dual mode.”