I spent final week in Boston, meeting with a quantity of of The world’s prime automation startups. Gentle Robotics — based mostly in close by Bedford, Massachusetts — is A Sort of identifys that comes up Tons. As a Outcome of the idea Of sentimental robotics grippers have more and more come into vogue, The agency of The identical identify has been reaping a lot of that windfall.
Right now, For event, it introduced a $26 million Collection C, led by Tyson Ventures. The VC arm of Tyson Meals is a pure match right here. In any case, meals manufacturing has prolonged been An monumental piece of Gentle Robotics’ method. Its compliant grippers do A great job choosing up fragile and inconsistently sized mealsstuffs, from meat To current — a prolongedstanding problem for extra inflexible methods.
“At Tyson, We’re regularly exploring new areas in automation Which will enhance safety and enhance the productiveness of our group members,” Tyson Ventures’ Rahul Ray said in a launch. “Gentle Robotics’ revolutionary robotic know-how, pc imaginative and prescient and AI platform have the potential To rework the meals enterprise And might play a key position in any agency’s automation journey.”
Marel and Johnsonville additionally joined the spherical as new buyers, following a $23 million Collection B with a $10 million extension raised in June of final yr. On the time, Gentle Robotics cited pandemic-fueled job loss as A critical motivator Inside the funding spherical. Clearly the job state of affairs hasn’t gotten A lot greater — notably in industries like meat packing — Whilst funding has largely slowed down throughout the board over the previous yr.
The agency says The mannequin new spherical of funding will go in the direction of accelerating the deployment of …….