Vecna Robotics adds $40 million in funding to close Series C round totalling $100 million
Investment to expand ground-to-ground and low-lift workflow capabilities and development of new robots; company announces new Chief Operating Officer.
Vecna Robotics, a provider of flexible material handling automation solutions, today announced the close of its Series C round at $100 million, with $40 million in new funding including equity and debt, which nearly doubles the company valuation from the previous round. Tiger Global Management, Proficio Capital Partners, and IMPULSE participated in the round.
The company explained that the cash infusion will be used to fund new workflow-specific innovations that enable the company to deliver rapid ROI to cost conscious warehouse operators served by the $165 billion pallet-moving autonomy market. To support its rapid expansion, the company also announced the appointment of Michael Helmbrecht as Chief Operating Officer.
“Finalizing this capital raise, with the help of our existing investors and a new financing partner is huge validation that we are on the right track,” said Craig Malloy, CEO at Vecna Robotics. “With fresh capital secured, we have the balance sheet to help us drive growth with our existing customers through improved product performance and the release of new automation technology that will change the game for material handling in warehousing and distribution.”
Over the past year, Vecna added, it has combined cloud software updates and investments in its Pivotal Command Center to help customers like GEODIS, FedEx, Caterpillar, Shape, and others, realize upwards of 70% performance improvements in ground-to-ground warehouse workflows like case picking, packaging, and cross-docking. In addition to these improvements, the company added, the cash infusion will support the launch of next-generation platforms that will help it provide more deployment flexibility and reach into new workflows that are in high demand, while being able to continue delivering operator cost savings from day one.
“GEODIS has been working with Vecna Robotics on the development of a new, groundbreaking case picking solution that nearly doubles performance,” said Andy Johnston, Senior Director of Innovation at GEODIS. “We are counting on this recent cash infusion at the company to speed up development and launch of a complete, market-ready offering that can be deployed right away.”
Vecna said Helmbrecht will be instrumental in these initiatives, overseeing operations, manufacturing, IT, product and customer success to ensure the company continues to meet its customer-defined performance guarantees. A former Dell, Lifesize, and Ring Central executive, Helmbrecht brings nearly 20 years of operations, product and partnership experience to Vecna Robotics. Vecna noted that he joins the company after a year of scale, including triple-digit revenue growth, over 100% increase in deployments and the successful announcement of an industry-leading performance guarantee.
Vecna offers self-driving forklifts, pallet jacks, and tuggers, powered by its Pivotal orchestration software and 24/7/365 Command Center.
