Locus Robotics secures $25m funding
Locus Robotics – a provider of autonomous, mobile robots for e-commerce fulfillment warehouses – has secured $25m in Series B funding.
The funding round was led by California-based Scale Venture Partners and existing investors also participated.
“E-commerce fulfillment warehouses are under tremendous pressure to meet increasing demands for fast, accurate order fulfillment in the face of significant labor challenges,” said Rick Faulk, CEO of Locus Robotics.
“Locus Robotics’s collaborative robots allow warehouse operators to significantly increase worker productivity while economically closing the growing labor gap. In an economy largely dominated by Amazon, Locus arms independent operators with the means to compete effectively.”
Rory O’Driscoll, General Partner at ScaleVP, added: “We look for huge markets, burning needs, and compelling and innovative technologies that address those needs.
“We try to invest just when that innovative technology is ready to jump from an interesting idea that might happen, to a core business imperative that is happening right now. For collaborative robotics the time is right now. Robots can work safely with humans, each doing what they do best, to double human productivity and lighten the physical workload in industries like logistics. We anticipate an explosion of this trend in the next few years, and Locus will be at the heart of that trend.”
Locus Robotics offers a Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) subscription business model that allows customers to realise the benefits of the technology without a large-scale capital investment.
The company’s high profile customers include DHL Supply Chain.
In its statement about the $25m funding round, Locus Robotics included a quote from Adrian Kumar, Vice President, Solutions Design North America at DHL Supply Chain, on how DHL is using Locus Robotics’ technology.
“DHL Supply Chain takes digitization seriously and we have made some significant strides partnering with Locus Robotics,” said Kumar.
“Integrating LocusBots into one of our sites has increased productivity two-fold and the associate feedback is positive. Locus has been agile with their ability to adapt and change as we learn from these innovations. When we can provide our customers with more efficient and effective operations, we all win. We are eager to further develop our relationship as our commitment to continuous improvement is solid.”
As previously reported by Post&Parcel, DHL Supply Chain ran a pilot test using “LocusBots” at a life sciences facility in Tennessee earlier this year.
