COVID-19 is proving to be a massive driver for robotics investments — and for good reason. Robots don’t call in sick, and they’re far less likely to be disease vectors than their human counterparts. Companies attempting to keep the lights on during this and potential future pandemics are no doubt taking a serious looking at ways to automate their work forces.
Anecdotally, I’ve been seeing an uptick in interest and raises, particularly the warehouse and logistic categories. Amazon’s successful embrace of a growing robotic workforce has no doubt been an inspiration for companies large and small, and VCs are certainly sitting up and taking notice of the phenomenon.
This week, XYZ Robotics is benefiting, announcing a $17 million Series A+. The round comes courtesy of Source Code Capital, Gaorong Capital and Morningside Capital. XYZ says it will be using the money for research and development, biz dev and scaling up its operational capabilities. The round brings the company’s total funding up to $27 million. Those are some pretty impressive totals for a company founded as recently as May 2018.
We visited the company’s humble Massachusetts offices this year to chat with the company about their pick-and-place tech. XYZ is one of countless companies working to perfect the technology, differentiating itself with its vision system and a dexterous system of swappable grippers that can be replaced on the fly.
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