Osaro raises $16 million to develop machine learning for industrial automation

Osaro, a developer of machine learning software for industrial automation – especially robotic picking and vision, has raised $16 million in Series B funding.

The round was conducted with participation from King River Capital, Alpha Intelligence Capital, Founders Fund, Pegasus Tech Ventures, GiTV Fund, and existing investors as well as strategics, bringing total funding to $29.3 million.

Co-founder and CEO Derik Pridmore says the funds will be used to invest in talent acquisition, international deployments, and advancing the Osaro Pick and Osaro Vision product lines to meet customer demands.

Osaro’s robotic piece-picking software has improved performance and efficiency in e-commerce order fulfillment and intralogistics for multiple customers, including top material handling companies.

Osaro plans to expand into handling order fulfillment in electronics, apparel, groceries, pharmaceuticals, and many other industries.

Megan Guy, co-founder and partner of King River Capital, who will be joining Osaro’s board of directors, says: “We are very excited to be leading this funding round.

“It is rare and exciting to work with a team that has both world class deep learning talent and a highly commercial orientation.

“Osaro’s perception and control software enables full automation of some of the most difficult vision, picking, and manufacturing problems, and its ability to integrate with a wide range of robotics hardware means that it can be deployed not only in greenfield environments but also as a retrofit solution to transform industrial automation.”

Investment in warehouse and logistics automation is expected to increase from $8.3 billion in 2018 to $30.8 billion by 2022 , according to research company Tractica.

Osaro’s proprietary software enables industrial robots to perform diverse tasks in a wide range of environments, addressing growing labor shortages in fulfillment centers worldwide.

The company is transitioning the automation industry from static robotic systems into dynamic solutions.

Pridmore, says: “A key element of our competitive advantage is Osaro Vision’s deep learning algorithms.

“These algorithms generalize picking tasks with minimal training data and no SKU registration for quick, scalable solutions.

“In addition, as a software company, we support a wide array of commodity hardware and robotic arms which lets our customers select options that best fit their needs.”

Osaro also announced that Kevin Pope has joined as VP of Engineering. With 30 years’ experience in high-tech product development, he led engineering teams at Applied Digital Access, Mahi Networks, and Calix.

Pope will support the company in scaling their AI-based robotic picking solutions worldwide.

Pope says: “Osaro’s approach of developing hardware-agnostic AI software for industrial robotics allows us to work in close collaboration with our customers, integrating Osaro products for their specific use cases, with a focus on scalability and robustness, providing our customers with a long-term competitive advantage. Our focus in the next year will be to increase our deployments in North America, Australia, Korea, China, Japan, and Germany.”