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The funding round was led by SoftBank, which has taken a keen interest in robotics recently, along with participation from New Enterprise Associates, Khosla Ventures, and Canaan.
FREMONT, CA: Here comes pretty sizeable funding news from Berkshire Grey, the Massachusetts-based company, who recently announced the closing of Series B funding for a lofty $263 million. The funding round was led by SoftBank, which has taken a keen interest in robotics recently, along with participation from New Enterprise Associates, Khosla Ventures, and Canaan.
The retail category has become one of the biggest and best-funded robotics categories in recent years, particularly when coupled with connected verticals such as logistics and warehouse fulfilment. Berkshire Grey has mostly been under the same radar, and with this huge funding, it is set to kick-off its strategies in 2020.
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Berkshire Grey, having a name that sounds like a financial holdings company, has displayed pretty sophisticated pick-and-place robots. Giving stiff competition to Amazon Robotics and Fetch, Berkshire has positioned itself particularly well in the warehouse space. Like the others, Berkshire's pitch is largely around questions of labor shortages in such high-intensity jobs, while claiming to increase e-commerce operations by 70 percent to 80 percent.
"Our customers from leading enterprises in retail, eCommerce, and logistics are selecting Berkshire Grey as a competitive differentiator," founder and CEO Tom Wagner said in a release tied to the news. "With our intelligent robotic automation, our clients see faster and more efficient supply chain operations that enable them to address the wants of today's savvy consumer."
Berkshire says the money will go towards acquisition, increasing the workforce, and a push toward international growth. “Supported by AI and machine learning systems, BG’s robotic picking solutions pick hundreds of thousands of different products to assemble eCommerce and store replenishment orders,” says Pete Blair, VP of Marketing at BG.
As understood, robotics is a hot segment — the warehouse robotics market alone is expected to be worth $4.44 billion by 2022, according to Markets and Markets. Around 60,000 employees handle orders in the U.S., and companies like Foxconn, an Apple manufacturing partner, have deployed thousands of assistive robots in assembly plants overseas.
Berkshire Grey has been selected as one of the Top 20 Robotics Solution Companies - 2019 by the CIO Review Magazine for the year 2019.
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