Developer of AI-powered Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) for warehousing and manufacturing environments ForwardX has closed a Series B funding round with more than US$38m (£29m).
This funding brings ForwardX’s total Series B funding to over US$63m (£47.4m) after an initial round of US$10m (£7.5m) in March 2019 and an extension of US$15m (£11m) in April 2020. Since its founding in 2016, ForwardX has raised close to US$74m (£55.5m) in venture capital.
The company will use its Series B funding to accelerate the development of new products and existing products, while expanding its market share across China and the United States. In addition, the company will invest in new international markets, such as Japan, Germany, and the UK.
“Our customers in the warehousing and manufacturing industries come to us to transform their operations and help them unlock new levels of efficiency that were previously unattainable,” said Nicolas Chee, founder and CEO of ForwardX Robotics.
“ForwardX Robotics’s flexible automation platform enables supply chain facilities to elevate worker performance, reduce growing labour costs pressures, and adapt quickly and effectively to changes in the market.”
ForwardX’s intelligent mobile robot fleets and AI-driven fleet management software is designed to empowers warehouses and factories to double worker productivity while reducing labour-related costs, such as wages, recruitment costs, and training costs.
Furthermore, through the flexibility of its platform, ForwardX aims to help facilities become more agile and resilient when faced with fluctuating volume, increasingly complex processes, and rising external cost pressures.
“Last year, we co-operated with ForwardX on a project as part of our 5G digital transformation initiative. Our aim was to achieve unmanned material handling across the factory,” said Caijun Zhao, head of president’s office at TCL Industries Holdings.
“The project has been successful so far with seamless collaboration between [ForwardX’s] AMRs, workers, machines, and the loading carts. We are now looking towards the second and third phases of the project.”
