Robotics locusA manufacturer and developer of autonomous mobile robots (AMR) for the production warehouses, crossed the evaluation bar of $ 1 billion after having obtained an additional $ 150 million in series financing E led by investment companies Tiger Global Management and Bond. THE robotics The company has obtained around $ 255 million in funding to date.
Locus will use the new investment to further extend its international market opportunities, including greater thrust in the European Union and the Asia-Pacific region, and to support continuous research and development (R&D) to grow and improve its warehouse Technological solution. This seems to be a trend for the company, which has entered Australia and the New Zealand markets for the first time after having raised $ 40 million Last June. The company also plans to increase its current workforce from 165 to 240 this year.
The company offers a “robot as a service” program through which customers can evolve by adding its “locusbots” in limited time. For monthly subscription fees, Locus sends or receives robots to warehouses on request, and it provides these robot software and hardware updates, in addition to maintenance.
In a press release, the CEO of Robotic Locus, Rick Faulk explosive volumes. “He noted that submerged warehouses and distribution centers could use flexible and intelligent warehouses automation To improve productivity and develop their operations. In November, Faulk told Sourcing Journal that some locus customers sold as much as Four times online What they sold the previous year, because the pandemic sent buyers who love stores looking for online alternatives.
Locus says that it currently serves more than 40 customers and 80 warehouses worldwide, with around 80% of its deployments in the United States and the remaining 20% in Europe. Locusbots has chosen more than 300 million units, including 70 million units During the recent holiday season, an increase of 250% compared to the previous year. During the only week, Locusbots have an average of 1.2 million daily units chosen during the seven -day period.
The AMRs are designed to work in collaboration with human workers in order to considerably improve the productivity of the manipulation of parts from 100 to 200%, according to the company. Robots can be reconfigured with bins, boxes, bins, containers or peripherals such as barcode scanners, printers and label sensors, and can recognize the workers’ bluetooth badges and go to the language favorite of their employees.
Food of AMRs, proprietary software and report capacities are designed to improve the efficiency of outgoing picking capacities and incoming reappointment / replenishment capacities, which can be deployed in unlikely and even recently abandoned warehouses. Acting like a coordinated fleet, robots can navigate independently in a warehouse, dynamically adjusting their path and collaborating with workers. Locus algorithms are designed to dynamically allocate the picker workloads in order to optimize productivity and minimize unproductive walking.
On the Backend, the locusserver based on the company’s cloud directs the robots so that they learn effective travel routes, share this information with other robots and clusters orders where workers are located . As orders come into warehouse management systems, Locus organizes them before transmitting confirmations, providing managers from real -time performance data, including productivity and robot status.
Thanks to LoSrusserver, managers can detect blockages and other traffic problems to improve articles withdrawal rates and order debit. Locus has carried out the selection technology of workers employees to their next choices, possibly offering challenges thanks to a gamification functionality which supports individual, team and team objectives, as well as events and a mechanism can use To provide comments. In addition, the Backend de Locus brings together various long -tailed measurements, including time -choice data, daily and monthly selection volume, current robots locations and robot load levels.
As cloud -based software is accessible from anywhere, managers can consult a wide range of dashboards using their smartphones or laptops, while employees can monitor performance on screens directly on the ground the warehouse.
The company offers “seasonal robots” to its existing accounts, so that retailers can be more flexible or scalable with their current workforce. With this program, retailers can have the seasonal bots shipped in warehouses shipped, where they can be used for 60 days before being returned to Locus.
“The logistics industry is confronted with enormous challenges because it has trouble dealing with a rapid increase in demand and, at the same time, serious shortages of labor,” said Ash Sharma , Managing Director at Interact Analysis, a market research company covering the intelligent automation sector. “The warehouses are massively underpinned today, but more and more, operators see the enormous advantages that the robotics warehouse such as the locus solution can provide. Consequently, we expect more than a million warehouse robots to be installed over the next four years and that the number of warehouses that uses them will increase ten times. »»
Gartner Also expects that until 2023, the demand for robotic products to person (G2P) will be quadruple to help apply social distancing in warehouses. World expeditions of Storage and logistics robots will reach 938,000 units per year by 2022, against 194,000 units in 2019, according to Tractica, an intelligence company that focuses on emerging technologies.
The new financing tour of Locus Robotics is based on the support of existing investors, in particular Scale Venture Partners and PROLOGIS Ventures, the venture capital branch of the Prologis Logistics Real Estate Company.
The company says that its strategic partnerships with warehouse software companies and third -party logistics suppliers allow retailers to enter the integration and deployment of technology systems.
Locus clients around the world include Ceva Logistics, DHL, Material Bank, UK boots, Geodis, Port Logistics Group, Verst logistics, Radial and others, the company claiming that they were doubled or triple their productivity with ” 100%”,” while saving on operating expenses and improving employee morale and safety.