Warehouse robot maker 6 River Systems has raised $25 million in Series B financing.
The funding round was led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from all existing investors including Norwest Venture Partners, Eclipse Ventures and iRobot.
6RS will use the investment to enhance its first collaborative fulfillment robot, called “Chuck”.
It will also support the development of a decision-making engine for warehouses and add more than 80 employees over the next 12 months.
The ongoing e-commerce evolution – and the innovation in retail markets – has changed the world of business, says 6RS.
Consumers demand better service, but operators are “stuck in the trenches and left fighting today’s problems with yesterday’s tools”, adds the company.
6RS says it knows that “fulfillment is key to customer satisfaction”. Starting with Chuck, which the company claims “has already drastically increased warehouse productivity and reduced training costs”, 6RS claims to be building fulfillment solutions to power the winning warehouses of the future.
6RS says it has successfully deployed its system at three of the top five third-party logistics providers and some of the largest retailers in the world.
With 6RS, retailers and manufacturers are realizing 2-3X pick rates at half the cost of warehouse investments of the past.
Lewis Frazer, senior vice president at Barrett Distribution Centers, says: “Barrett Distribution Centers is a leader in the use of innovative technologies.
“6RS’ software and their collaborative robot Chuck has increased our productivity, reduced error rates by 50 percent and reduced training times to a matter of hours.
“The 6RS team has been a strong partner, scaling up to support our increased usage in the last year.”
Matt Murphy, partner at Menlo Ventures, says: “The hypergrowth in e-commerce and demand for near real-time delivery of goods has put enormous pressure on the logistics, operations and workforce of virtually every retailer.
“6 River Systems’ smart, autonomous robot and next gen fulfillment system is the ideal solution to the problem.
“The 6RS team’s background at Kiva Systems, the first generation of mobile robots for warehouses, has uniquely qualified them to innovate quickly, execute to the market needs, and build a leadership position in a massive market with a huge pain point.”
