BEDFORD, Mass., June 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Award-winning food
robotics company Soft Robotics Inc. announced today that it has
raised a $10M Series B
extension, to further expand commercial operations to meet COVID-19
pandemic-fueled demand. The capital will also go towards the
company's launch of its SoftAI™ powered robotic solutions. SoftAI
layers 3D vision and artificial intelligence technologies on top of
Soft Robotics' patented and proven, IP69K-rated, soft grasping to
give industrial robots the hand-eye coordination of human beings.
This unprecedented combination of robotic "hands," "eyes" and
"brains" enables, for the first time ever, the automation of bulk
picking processes (e.g. bin picking) in the food supply chain. The
round was co-led by Material Impact, Scale Venture Partners, and
Calibrate Ventures and brings Tyson Ventures, the venture capital
arm of Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSN) into the syndicate. ABB
Technology Ventures and Tekfen Ventures also participated to
complete the round.
"Today's industrial robots are unable to deal with product
variability or unstructured environments typically found across the
labor challenged food supply chain in areas such as agriculture,
food processing, and logistics," said Mark
Chiappetta, COO at Soft Robotics. "With our revolutionary
soft grasping, 3D perception, and AI technologies, Soft Robotics
unlocks robotic automation by augmenting widely available
industrial robots with true hand-eye coordination allowing them to
perform tasks that traditionally could only be performed by human
workers."
Companies such as Tyson Foods, are betting on adoption of
robotic automation to help improve safety and increase production
in their facilities to meet the demand for high quality, safe and
nutritious protein products. Tyson Foods is a leading producer of
chicken, beef, and pork, and has invested about $500 million in new technology and automation in
the last three years. The company is an existing user of Soft
Robotics.
"At Tyson Ventures, we are continually exploring new areas in
automation that can enhance safety and increase the productivity of
our team members," said Rahul Ray,
Senior Director of Tyson Ventures. "Soft Robotics' best-in-class
robotic technology, computer vision and AI platform have the
potential to transform the food industry and will play a key role
in any company's automation journey."
The global COVID-19 pandemic has ratcheted up the pressure to
automate to alleviate workforce challenges and increase operational
and food safety in factory environments. Soft Robotics has
experienced a rapid increase in demand for its products and has
delivered the two largest sales quarters in the company's
seven-year history.
"This is an exciting time at Soft Robotics," said Jeff Beck, CEO at Soft Robotics. "The
vulnerabilities of the food supply chain were illuminated by the
pandemic making it clear that automation has graduated from a
nice-to-have to a must-have across all large scale food production
operations. Soft Robotics patented technologies are ready and
being used today to enable automation in the
processing and packaging of proteins, produce and bakery
products. Demand for both our hardware and SoftAI software
solutions are increasing at an unprecedented pace. This new
capital will support Soft Robotics' exponential growth thereby
ensuring automation plays a major role in safeguarding the food
supply against future disruptions."
"We've been an investor in Soft Robotics since the very early
stages and their progress in the last 18 months has been
phenomenal. Their SoftAI solution, combining patented soft robotic
grippers, ultra-fast 3D vision, and sophisticated AI that evaluates
a scene to autonomously choose the optimal grasping solution, is
the future of robotics and an absolute game-changer for the food
and logistics industries," said Kevin
Dunlap, managing partner at Calibrate Ventures. "Companies
in these sectors are rapidly adopting SoftAI in their factories to
automate picking and sorting of fragile or irregularly-shaped
products such as meats, produce, and seasonal items that previously
had to be hand-sorted."
About Soft Robotics
Soft Robotics is an industry-leading and award-winning
technology company that designs and builds automated picking
solutions using mGrip, a proprietary, modular soft robotic gripping
system, 3D machine perception, and SoftAI™ artificial intelligence.
The company's transformational robotic solutions enable machine
builders to solve the hardest piece picking problems across the
food supply chain in areas like agriculture, food processing, and
logistics. Today Soft Robotics has hundreds of system
installations, running billions of successful picks, in 24/7 "live"
production for some of the largest global producers in these
industries.
Soft Robotics is backed by leading venture capital firms and
strategic investors that include ABB Technology Ventures, Calibrate
Ventures, FANUC, Honeywell Ventures, Hyperplane Venture Capital,
Material Impact, Scale Venture Partners, Tekfen Ventures, Tyson
Ventures, and Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. Learn more at
www.softroboticsinc.com.
Media and General Inquiries:
Julie Collura
Director Marketing Communications
jcollura@softroboticsinc.com
Investment/partnership inquiries:
Mark Chiappetta
Chief Operating Officer
mchiappetta@softroboticsinc.com
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