Matija Kopić returns to Gideon, and the company has a new director

A year and a half after stepping down as the head of Gideon, co-founder and former CEO Matija Kopić has announced his return to the company. Since Gideon is headquartered in the USA, Kopić will take the position of non-executive board member, a governing body for the company’s strategy, strategic decision-making, management oversight, and protection of the interests of all shareholders.

As he announced on his LinkedIn profile, he is ‘back in the game’ and will continue to work with the team on Gideon’s AI-powered robots for loading and unloading in warehouses. Kopić briefly told Lider that in this capacity he will assist Josip Ćesić, who became the new CEO of Gideon at the beginning of 2024, and the rest of the team ‘in realizing our multi-year business vision’.

Recall that in July 2022, also on LinkedIn, Kopić indicated that he was stepping down from the position of CEO of Gideon ‘for personal reasons’ after five and a half years. He decided to take time to rest and focus on his family, which he stated had been ‘in the background for too long’ while he led Gideon, describing that period as an ‘entrepreneurial rollercoaster’. However, Kopić noted at that time that he would continue to act as an advisor to the company, while he was replaced in the CEO position by Steve Petrović, the former production director.

Gideon is a company that produces robots and AI-based solutions for warehouses and manufacturing facilities. The company was founded as a startup in 2017 and is often mentioned as one of the potential new Croatian unicorns.

New Strategic Partnership

Today, Gideon announced a new strategic partnership with the Swedish company Toyota Material Handling Europe, which offers warehouse equipment for the industry, such as forklifts. Given that the industry is experiencing significant growth in demand for automation and flexible robotic solutions, Gideon’s autonomy software will be integrated into Toyota’s vehicles.

– Toyota’s expertise in developing industrial equipment for material handling and their market presence, combined with Gideon’s software solution and focus on specific technical problems, provides unparalleled value for end users – stated the new director Ćesić, who was previously a member of Gideon’s board of directors and before that the chief technology officer.

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Josip Ćesić

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Gideon has already developed solutions for autonomous loading and unloading of trucks in manufacturing and warehouses, as well as a collaborative solution for order picking in retail distribution centers. As the first result of the collaboration with Toyota Material Handling Europe, the plan is to present a new autonomous solution for the order picking and preparation process for retail distribution to the market during this year.