WILMINGTON, Mass., April 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Locus
Robotics (www.locusrobotics.com), the market leader in autonomous
mobile robots (AMR) for fulfillment warehouses, today announced
that it has raised $26M in Series C
funding. The Company will use the proceeds to scale production of
its revolutionary multi-bot solution for warehouse fulfillment, as
well as for expansion of its sales and marketing efforts, both in
North America, and
internationally. Participants in the round include Zebra Ventures,
the strategic investment arm of Zebra Technologies, and Scale
Venture Partners, which led the Company's Series B round in
2017.
"Zebra Technologies has a longstanding mission of driving
productivity in logistics and the supply chain," said Tony Palcheck, Managing Director of Zebra
Ventures. "We invest in technologies that will help our customers
increase operational efficiency and meet their requirements for
on-time delivery. Locus has quickly established itself as a leader
in warehouse automation, and the company is a natural fit with our
enterprise intelligence vision in the warehouse market."
The Series C investment brings Locus's total funding to more
than $66 million since the Company's
launch, and follows a record 2018 performance during which Locus
rolled out new deployments with top retail/e-tail, third party
logistics (3PL), distribution, and industrial specialty customers
across North America.
"The continued, rapid growth of the warehouse industry and a
tight labor market have placed tremendous pressure on warehouse
operators to find a scalable, cost-effective way to meet increasing
productivity and efficiency demands," said Rick Faulk, CEO of Locus Robotics. "We have seen
a massive uptick in demand for the flexible automation incorporated
into Locus's multi-bot solution, which is uniquely suited to
address these challenges. Not only is our solution proven to
dramatically improve productivity and drive down costs, but it is
also a source of scalable labor that can be adapted to meet the
demands of numerous product and customer profiles. This new funding
will enable us to scale to meet growing demand for our
revolutionary solution worldwide."
Locus's award-winning, multi-robot solution enables warehouse
operators to achieve more efficient fulfillment operations, while
simultaneously managing both labor costs and seasonally fluctuating
order volume. Customers, including DHL, GEODIS, Port Logistics
Group, Verst Logistics, Radial, and
others, are seeing doubling or tripling of fulfillment productivity
with near-100% accuracy, while saving 30% or more in operating
expenses.
"GEODIS is leading the way in automation digitalization in order
to drive greater success for our customers," said Eric Douglas, Executive Vice President of
Technology and Engineering at GEODIS Americas. "Locus's offering
delivers powerful results, scales to meet growth and seasonal
demands, and is flexible enough for us to deploy it rapidly
throughout our network."
"The accelerated adoption of robotics technology worldwide is
driving significant demand for autonomous mobile robots, and Locus
brings to market a unique solution that provides an easy-to-deploy,
flexible, and scalable approach to autonomous mobile robot-enabled
fulfillment," said John Santagate,
Research Director at IDC. "Locus's multi-robot solution is unique
in the market as it allows human workers in the fulfillment process
to execute to many orders as they can interact with multiple robots
that are working independently of one another at any given
time. The partnership with Zebra is also quite interesting as
it combines a long-time leader in supply chain technology with an
emerging vendor in a high growth market."
In addition to Zebra Ventures' financial investment, Zebra
Technologies is working with Locus to integrate technologies to
bring innovative solutions to market. Locus recently added an
accessory power port to their autonomous mobile robot, the
LocusBot, which features a Zebra printer integrated onto its
robotic platform, and showcased a Zebra wireless handheld scanner
integrated with Locus's new putaway functionality.
ABOUT LOCUS ROBOTICS
Locus Robotics' revolutionary,
multi-bot solution incorporates powerful and intelligent autonomous
mobile robots that operate collaboratively with human workers to
dramatically improve piece-handling productivity 2X-3X, with less
labor compared to traditional picking systems. This award-winning
solution helps retailers, 3PLs, and specialty warehouses
efficiently meet and exceed the increasingly complex and demanding
requirements of fulfillment environments, easily integrating into
existing warehouse infrastructures without disrupting workflows,
instantly transforming productivity without transforming the
warehouse. For more information, visit www.locusrobotics.com.
ABOUT ZEBRA
Zebra (NASDAQ: ZBRA)
empowers the front line of business in retail/ecommerce,
manufacturing, transportation and logistics, healthcare and other
industries to achieve a performance edge. With more than 10,000
partners across 100 countries, Zebra delivers industry-tailored,
end-to-end solutions that intelligently connect people, assets and
data to help customers make business-critical decisions. Zebra's
market-leading solutions elevate the shopping experience, track and
manage inventory as well as improve supply chain efficiency and
patient care. Ranked on Forbes' list of America's Best Employers
for the last four years, Zebra helps customers capture their
edge. For more information, visit www.zebra.com.
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SOURCE Locus Robotics