Fetch Robotics Garners $25 Million in Funding
Fetch Robotics has raised $25 million in Series B funding in its latest round of capital investments.
Sway Ventures, O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures, Shasta Ventures and SB Group US (a unit of Japanese multinational SoftBank) participated.
San Jose, Calif.-based Fetch, which provides robots for warehouse and logistics firms, has raised $48 million total in three funding rounds since February 2015.
Fetch develops and manufactures autonomous mobile robots equipped with its FetchCore cloud-based software system. The robots in its Freight series are designed for material transport systems and automated data collection.
A Fetch robot deployed to a new warehouse will conduct a “drive-thru,” and the device’s software will build a map of the facility that is shared with other robots, according to Fetch. This capability speeds deployment and integration of the systems to new facilities.
“We are seeing firsthand that the growth in e-commerce and an expanding on-demand economy are contributing to unprecedented labor challenges faced by the $5 trillion global logistics industry,” Fetch CEO Melonee Wise said. “With labor in short supply, our customers are still able to quickly realize significant, measurable productivity increases by deploying our autonomous mobile robots.”
The warehouse and logistics automation market is worth $40 billion and could double in five years, according to Brian Nugent, a partner with Sway Ventures, an early to midstage venture firm.
