- Autonomous mobile robot company Fetch Robotics recently announced that it raised $46 million in Series C funding led by Fort Ross Ventures
Fetch Robotics — an autonomous mobile robot company — recently announced that it raised $46 million in Series C funding. This round of funding was led by Fort Ross Ventures. Softbank Capital, Sway Ventures, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, Shasta Ventures, Redwood Technologies, CEAS Investments, TransLink Capital, and Zebra Ventures also participated in this round. Including this round, Fetch Robotics has raised $94 million since being founded.
“Customers have responded enthusiastically to our unique Cloud Robotics solution, and we’re responding by securing the funds we need to continue growing and enhancing our offerings,” said Fetch Robotics CEO Melonee Wise in a statement via The Robot Report. “The competitive pressures for excellence in logistics have never been greater. Our autonomous mobile robots and cloud platform enable our customers to meet their customers’ demands while meeting their own financial objectives.”
This round of funding will be used for international expansion and to meet customer demand. Plus it will be used for expanding the capabilities of its Cloud Robotics platform. The Cloud Robotics platform is known for managing the deployment and integration of Fetch’s AMRs to customer operations. The Cloud Robotics platform is able to analyze data collected by Fetch’s AMRs to help customers gain better insights into their operations and identify efficiencies.
In the same announcement, Fetch also revealed it signed a new customer: Universal Logistics Holdings. Universal Logistics Holdings is a transportation and logistics solutions company that works with Fortune 500 manufacturers and retailers that is deploying 10 Fetch CartConnect this month in a 1 million square foot facility in Smyrna, Tennessee.
“In Smyrna, as in many markets we serve, we face chronic labor shortages, at times in excess of 10% of our required staff, which puts significant pressure on everyone from the workers on the floor to senior management,” added Universal Logistics CEO Jeff Rogers. “The Fetch Robotics system provides an answer to our problem. Because the system installs so quickly – we had it fully operational in less than a week – we’re able to boost output and manage our costs. And our workers like it because the robots take on the less interesting, more laborious tasks.”
Rather than paying for the AMRs upfront, Universal is financing them so that it can expedite the return on investment.
“Thanks to the short time from delivery to operation and the pay-as-you go approach, we’ve seen an immediate financial benefit from the Fetch deployment,” explained Lee Weisenberger — the managing director of IT at Universal. “This is a model we can easily roll out to many additional facilities.”
The Fetch AMRs use LiDAR and 3D cameras for navigating around obstacles. The robots are able to move around in real-time without having to depend on pre-programmed paths. This automated process would be able to help humans become more efficient in handling the tedious physical tasks associated with warehouse environments. Fetch’s AMRs are currently used at about 100 logistics and manufacturing facilities across 11 countries.
