Vecna Robotics, a flexible material handling automation provider, has announced a US$65m (£48m) Series C funding round, which will be put towards the development of new autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and software.
The company hopes its AMR solutions will accelerate fulfilment of new orders and expanded operations to address the US$165bn (£122bn) market opportunity for pallet-moving autonomy.
Vecna Robotics added it will now work to further support end-to-end automated material handling workflows.
The funding will also be used to extend the company’s development of PivotalTM, a proprietary orchestration engine. PivotalTM is designed to enable better integration with existing warehouse management systems, as well as third-party automation solutions.
“There is huge headroom for growth in automated material handling with over five billion pallets in the world being moved by more than five million forklifts and nearly five million manual operators,” said Craig Malloy, CEO of Vecna Robotics.
“This investment will allow us to accelerate our roadmap and deliver solutions to the market faster in order to meet the insatiable demand for increased throughput in material handling environments like factories and warehouses.”
The Series C funding round was led by Tiger Global Management, alongside new investors Lineage Logistics, Proficio Capital Partners, and Impulse.
Griffin Schroeder, partner at Tiger Global Management, added: “Shifts in the labour market are accelerating the need for automation throughout the global supply chain. Vecna Robotics is very well-positioned to help companies in warehousing, manufacturing, and distribution meet this challenge head-on with truly intelligent automation for pallet-sized loads.”
