Circus SE Pivots From Kitchen to Combat Zone With Belgian Acquisition and Military Orders

German robotics firm Circus SE acquires Belgian food-tech firm Alberts, enters defense sector with military robot sales, targeting NATO contracts and €44-55M revenue.

Circus SE is rewriting its growth story at breakneck speed. The German robotics company, which originally built AI-powered cooking robots for commercial kitchens, has now planted one foot firmly in the defense sector and the other in an expanded European footprint through a recent acquisition. The dual-pronged strategy is a direct response to a brutal German hospitality market, where insolvencies surged 30% last year to roughly 2,900 cases.

Alberts Deal Opens Six Markets at Once

In a move that bypasses years of organic expansion, Circus signed a binding agreement on April 16 to acquire Alberts, a Belgian specialist in compact food-production systems. Alberts’ units fit on roughly one square meter, neatly bridging the gap between Circus’s existing large-scale kitchen installations and its new military field robots. The takeover brings an instant operational infrastructure that already serves blue-chip clients including Danone and Decathlon — a network Circus admits would have taken years to build from scratch.

The purchase price remains undisclosed, but the currency is clear: Circus is paying entirely in newly issued shares. The dilution impact on existing shareholders will depend on the final due diligence results and the stock’s prevailing price. Those new shares come with a 30-month lock-up period, and the deal is expected to close by the end of the second quarter. Alberts’ management team will stay on board.

According to the ad-hoc announcement, Alberts is expected to contribute revenue within the current fiscal year. Yet Circus’s management has left its full-year guidance of €44 million to €55 million untouched — a striking ambition given the company booked just €250,000 in revenue last year while posting an operating loss of nearly €15 million.

Military Rollout Gains Traction

While the Alberts deal shores up the civilian side, Circus is accelerating its push into defense. The company’s outdoor military robot, the CA-M, has already passed prototype testing and is on track to generate its first sales this year. The first installation at a secured German Bundeswehr site is complete, and a procurement contract with the Lithuanian armed forces for tactical troop supply in Vilnius has been secured. Deliveries for Ukrainian soldiers are also being prepared.

Active negotiations are underway with multiple NATO member states. The logic is straightforward: state contracts offer longer-term commitments and lower financial risk compared to the volatile hospitality sector. On May 20, Circus management will present at the Cantor European Summit in Hamburg, where market participants expect details on these NATO logistics projects. The key question remains how many of the company’s thousands of non-binding pre-orders have been converted into firm contracts.

Production Ramps Up, Cash Needs Grow

Manufacturing is accelerating in tandem with the strategic shift. Working with partner Celestica, Circus has halved the production time for its CA-1 model to roughly four weeks. By the fourth quarter, capacity is expected to reach 64 units per month — well above the modeled annual demand.

Scaling up requires capital, and Circus has taken an unconventional route. The company recently placed its first robot-backed bond, structured as a hybrid instrument, with a target financing framework of up to €50 million arranged by Finexity.

The gap between ambition and reality remains vast. For 2026, management is targeting up to €55 million in revenue — a staggering leap from last year’s minimal turnover. That disconnect has driven the stock’s volatility above 100%. At the current price of €8.45, the shares have rallied roughly 44% over the past 30 days but remain down about 30% year-to-date.

What Investors Are Watching

The next major checkpoint comes on June 3, when Circus releases its first-quarter report. A follow-up update call on July 16 will detail how many pilot projects have been converted into binding orders. With 500 firm orders already on the books and thousands of non-binding pre-orders representing theoretical billions in revenue potential, the company must now demonstrate that its production capacity and military contracts can translate into actual cash flow.