RPD International (company)

RPD International (Rapid Product Development) is a design and manufacturing firm founded in 2012 by a British entrepreneur, Josh Valman. It collaborates with companies to design and manufacture new products.

It operates a global supply chain to develop and launch new products in the consumer electronics, consumer medical, and consumer goods industries. It works with clients such as Unilever, GSK and Vodafone. It also runs a program known as Accelerate. This program focuses on helping startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) launch new products and compete with larger businesses in manufacturing.

History
RPD was founded in 2012 to simplify the process of developing new products, particularly in startup-scale supply chain.

It was sold to Kinara International and rebranded as RPDK in 2023.

Since March 2017, it also competes in Robot Wars with a robot named Rapid.

In Series 9 of the BBC Series, Robot Wars, Rapid suffered a mechanical fault and withdrew from the competition.

It returned to Robot Wars in series 10, reaching the final episode. Rapid was beaten by the previous year's winner, Carbide, suffering significant damage resulting in a large lithium fire.