A Massachusetts robotics company has landed a $66 million series C round of funding, led by Safar Partners, Thomas H. Lee Partners and SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
RightHand Robotics produces robotics solutions for warehouse and fulfillment operations. The company, based in Somerville, Massachusetts, said it will use the funding to accelerate product and business development.
According to Crunchbase, RightHand Robotics had previously raised $53.3 million, with the most recent round of $19 million coming in October 2021.
“The past few years have been an incredibly exciting time for us,” said Yaro Tenzer, CEO and co-founder of RightHand Robotics. “This series C funding round attracted top-tier investors who know the space and share our vision that piece-picking automation enables predictable throughput with lights-out item handling, while meeting customer needs for scalable fulfillment services. We are eager to continue expanding our solution set and global presence to meet the needs of warehouse operators worldwide.”
Zebra Technologies, Epson and Global Brain also joined the latest round, along with previous investors GV, F-Prime Capital, Menlo Ventures, Matrix Partners and Tony Fadell’s Future Shape. Previous rounds were led by Menlo Ventures and Playground Global.
Watch: The future of warehouses
Robotics are playing an important role in fulfillment operations, although only about 5% of the world’s warehouses include any robotics or automation technology.
“We have been believers in this company for a few years already,” said Arunas Chesonis, managing partner at Safar Partners. “The RightHand Robotics piece-picking solution has demonstrated year after year that autonomous robots are vital to solving the challenges of organizations from retail to pharmacy. The surge in e-commerce will continue even when the pandemic subsides, and we are eager to witness the continued maturation of the robotics industry in response to this global demand.”
RightHand Robotics RightPick 3 piece-picking solution is in use with several retailers and integration partners in Europe. It utilizes AI and “intelligent grippers” and machine vision to facilitate faster and more accurate order picking.
“Labor shortages are stretching global fulfillment to breaking point, prompting companies to invest more in automation to help improve efficiency and reliability,” said Ram Trichur, a partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers. “We believe that RightHand Robotics is a leader in supply chain logistics with a flexible, full-stack platform that can be integrated directly into customers’ existing systems to improve throughput while decreasing fulfillment costs. We are delighted to partner with Leif Jentoft and Yaro Tenzer and the team as they expand their international presence.”
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