Vecna Robotics, a specialist in robotic material handling, has raised $14.5 million in additional funding from existing investors.
Proceeds of the funding round are earmarked to accelerate technology and product enhancements to address the automation needs of operators in automotive, general manufacturing, and high-volume warehousing.
Vecna has also appointed Karl Iagnemma as its new CEO. Iagnemma is a robotics expert and entrepreneur with a distinguished career blending academic research and industry leadership.
He co-founded and served as CEO of autonomous vehicle technology company nuTonomy, which was later acquired by Aptiv in 2017 for $450 million.
Under Iagnemma’s leadership, nuTonomy launched the world’s first public robotaxi pilots in Singapore. Iagnemma was also founding CEO of Motional, a $4 billion robotaxi joint venture between automaker Hyundai Motor Group and Tier 1 supplier Aptiv.
Prior to his industry career, Iagnemma directed the Robotic Mobility Group research laboratory at MIT, where he authored publications related to robotics and artificial intelligence that have been cited more than 20,000 times.
Iagnemma is also an inventor with more than 50 issued or pending patents in robotics and autonomous vehicles. While at MIT, Iagnemma met Daniel Theobald, a fellow MIT alumnus and founder of Vecna Robotics.
In 2020, Iagnemma made an angel investment in Vecna Robotics based on the company’s technology leadership and the potential for robotics to revolutionize material handling.
Iagnemma says: “Automation in logistics today is similar to the current state of robotaxis, in that there is a massive market opportunity but little market penetration.
“I join Vecna Robotics at an inflection point in the material handling market, where operators are poised to adopt automation at scale.
“Vecna is uniquely positioned to shape the market with state-of-the-art technology and products that are easy to purchase, deploy, and operate reliably across many different workflows.”
On the heels of the company’s recent announcement of CaseFlow, a novel approach to case picking automation based on optimized human-robot orchestration, Iagnemma brings world-class knowledge of autonomous technology to further accelerate technology and product innovation at Vecna.
Griffin Schroeder, partner at Tiger Global, says: “We are excited to see a skilled technologist and experienced leader like Karl take the helm at Vecna Robotics, guiding the company into its next chapter and further strengthening its leadership in the material handling robotics sector.”
Nick Solaro, general partner at Drive Capital, says: “Karl Iagnemma combines exceptional robotics expertise with hands-on leadership, making him the perfect fit to drive innovation and propel Vecna Robotics into its next phase of growth.
“We are confident that his extensive network will be instrumental in forging key strategic partnerships, securing the company’s long-term leadership in the market.”
