Locus Robotics raises $150m in Series E funding
Locus Robotics, specialised in warehouse automation, has raised $150 million in Series E funding to further expand its market opportunities around the globe and enhance its innovative warehouse technology solution.
The funding round has been led by investment firms Tiger Global Management and Bond, building on support from existing investors including Scale Venture Partners and Prologis Ventures.
“This new round of funding marks an important inflection point for Locus Robotics,” Rick Faulk, CEO of Locus Robotics, said. “Warehouses facing ongoing labour shortages and exploding volumes, are looking for flexible, intelligent automation to improve productivity and grow their operations. Locus is uniquely positioned to drive digital transformation in this enormous global market.”
Locus’s multi-bot solution for warehouse fulfilment incorporates collaborative, autonomous mobile robots that significantly improve productivity and make it easy to optimise warehouse operations, respond to e-commerce volume growth and seasonal peaks. Locus’s strategic partnerships with industry-leading warehouse software companies leverage a powerful synergy that speeds systems integration and deployment.
LocusBots operate safely alongside people, making them more efficient and effective compared to traditional order fulfillment systems. Workers are thus able to fulfil more orders with less work and without the need to reconfigure or disrupt the warehouse.
“The Locus solution unlocks substantial productivity gains, while significantly lowering expenses, improving employee morale, and providing customers with unmatched visibility into warehouse operations,” Jay Simons, a general partner at BOND, commented. “The platform is powerful enough to meet – and exceed – warehouse operators’ needs today, tomorrow, and in the months and years to come.”
Locus’s patented, proprietary software and intuitive user interface seamlessly integrate into both existing and new warehouse environments improving the efficiency of both inbound (“putaway”) and outbound (“picking”) fulfilment. Locus robots can be configured to carry a wide variety of items. Patented technology automatically recognises workers, and the robot’s large screen displays information in the worker’s preferred language, facilitating greater productivity and reduced error rates.
In a market of more than 20 billion square feet of warehouse space worldwide, and rising e-commerce volume, Locus helps operators effectively meet the industry’s growing demand, while seamlessly managing today’s often unpredictable volume shifts. Locus currently serves more than 40 customers and 80 warehouses around the world with its industry-leading solution. LocusBots have picked more than 300 million units, including 70 million units during the recent holiday season.
The company’s customers worldwide include CEVA Logistics, DHL, Material Bank, Boots UK, GEODIS, Port Logistics Group, Verst Logistics, Radial, and others.
