Advanced Computing in the Age of AI | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Locus Robotics Announces $150 Million Series E, Bringing Valuation to $1 Billion 

WILMINGTON, Mass., Feb. 18, 2021 -- Locus Robotics, a leader in autonomous mobile robots (AMR) for fulfillment warehouses, today announces $150 million in Series E funding, led by Tiger Global Management and BOND. The round builds on support from existing investors including Scale Venture Partners and Prologis Ventures, the venture capital arm of Prologis, the global leader in logistics real estate.

"This new round of funding marks an important inflection point for Locus Robotics," said Rick Faulk, CEO of Locus Robotics. "Warehouses facing ongoing labor shortages and exploding volumes, are looking for flexible, intelligent automation to improve productivity and grow their operations. Locus is uniquely positioned to drive digital transformation in this enormous global market."

Locus will use the new investment to further expand its market opportunities around the globe and support ongoing research and development (R&D) to grow and enhance its award-winning, innovative warehouse technology solution.

In a market of more than 20 billion square feet of warehouse space worldwide, and rising e- commerce volume, Locus helps operators effectively meet the industry's growing demand, while seamlessly managing today's often unpredictable volume shifts. Locus currently serves more than 40 customers and 80 warehouses around the world with its industry-leading solution. LocusBots have picked more than 300 million units, including 70 million units during the recent holiday season.

"The logistics industry is facing huge challenges as it struggles to cope with rapid increases in demand, and at the same time severe labor shortages," said Ash Sharma, Managing Director at Interact Analysis, a market research firm covering the intelligent automation sector. "Warehouses are massively under-penetrated today, but increasingly operators are seeing the huge benefits that warehouse robotics such as the Locus solution can bring. As a result, we expect that over a million warehouse robots will be installed over the next four years and the number of warehouses using them will grow ten-fold."

Locus's innovative, multi-bot solution for warehouse fulfillment incorporates collaborative, autonomous mobile robots that significantly improve productivity and deliver powerful, actionable business intelligence. Locus's strategic partnerships with industry-leading warehouse software companies leverage a powerful synergy that speeds systems integration and deployment.

Locus customers worldwide include CEVA Logistics, DHL, Material Bank, Boots UK, GEODIS, Port Logistics Group, Verst Logistics, Radial, and others, who are doubling or tripling their fulfillment productivity with near-100% accuracy, while saving on operating expenses, and enhancing employee morale and safety.

Locus's powerful business intelligence helps customers manage their business operations in real time. Accessible from anywhere, managers can review a wide range of dashboards using their phones or laptops, while employees can monitor performance on displays right on the warehouse floor.

Locus's patented, proprietary software and intuitive user interface seamlessly integrate into both existing and new warehouse environments improving the efficiency of both inbound ("putaway") and outbound ("picking") fulfillment. Locus robots can be configured to carry a wide variety of items. Patented technology automatically recognizes workers, and the robot's large screen displays information in the worker's preferred language, facilitating greater productivity and reduced error rates. Locus's innovative "Gamification" feature displays individual performance statistics to help motivate workers to greater achievement. The Locus solution includes real-time analytics, dashboards, and reporting to customers to maximize productivity and support continuous improvement in the warehouse.

About Locus Robotics

Locus Robotics' revolutionary, multi-bot solution incorporates powerful and intelligent autonomous mobile robots that operate collaboratively with human workers to dramatically improve piece-handling productivity 2 – 3x, with less labor compared to traditional piece handling systems. This award-winning solution helps retailers, 3PLs, and specialty warehouses efficiently meet and exceed the increasingly complex and demanding requirements of fulfillment environments, easily integrating into existing warehouse infrastructures without disrupting workflows, instantly transforming productivity without transforming the warehouse. For more information, visit www.locusrobotics.com.

About Tiger Global

Tiger Global Management is an investment firm that focuses on private and public companies in the global Internet, software, consumer, and payments industries. The Firm's private equity strategy was launched in 2003 and has invested in hundreds of companies across more than 30 countries, in all stages of funding – from Series A to pre-IPO. The venture business, currently investing its twelfth fund, aims to partner with dynamic entrepreneurs operating market-leading growth companies; examples include JD.com, Meituan, Facebook, LinkedIn, Spotify, Peloton, Credit Karma, Toast, Stripe, ByteDance, Stone, Warby Parker, Flipkart, Despegar, Ola and DiDi. Tiger Global was founded in 2001 and is based in New York with affiliate offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Singapore and Bangalore.

About BOND

BOND is a global technology investment firm that supports visionary founders throughout their entire life cycle of innovation and growth. BOND's founding partners have backed industry pioneers such as Airbnb, Canva, Docusign, DoorDash, Facebook, Instacart, JD.com, Peloton, Plaid, Ring, Slack, Spotify, Square, Stripe, Twitter, Uber, and Waze.


Source: Locus Robotics

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