Industry-Leading Robotic Automated picking solution –Soft Robotics, raises $10M through Series-B extension. This Global pandemic has increased the necessity for automation in food and beverage processors. Soft Robotics plans to utilize the raised funds to develop its commercial operations further and offer more advanced AI-powered solutions such as SoftAI to the Market.
SoftRobotics is an Automation Technology company that has its headquarters in Bedford. The company offers automation solutions to Food processing, consumer goods production, and logistics industries. It has two AI products currently-mGrip and SoftAI.
SoftRobotics is supported by leading venture capital firms. Recently, The company has announced it raised a $10 million fund in the series-B extension of funding. Material Impact, Scale Venture Partners, and Calibrate Ventures led the investment, including Tyson Ventures, the venture capital arm of Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN). ABB Technology Ventures and Tekfen Ventures also engaged and closed the round. Soft robotics announced that the company would use the capital to develop its commercial operations further and launch its Picker robots called SoftAI™.
SoftAI™ combines 3D vision and artificial intelligence with Soft Robotics’ patented and certified IP69K-rated soft gripping to give industrial robots– human-like hand and eye coordination which enables the bulk picking process in the food chain.
This pandemic has raised concern for safety and hygiene, especially in the food industry. Tyson Foods, a chief producer of beef, chicken, and pork, has invested $500 million in the last three years. The company is also a user of Soft Robotics.
Jeff Beck, CEO at Soft Robotics, said:
“The vulnerabilities of the food supply chain were illuminated by the pandemic making it clear that automation has graduated from a nice-to-have to a must-have across all large-scale food production operations. Soft Robotics patented technologies are ready and being used today to enable automation in the processing and packaging of proteins, produce, and bakery products. Demand for both our hardware and SoftAI software solutions is increasing at an unprecedented pace. This new capital will support Soft Robotics’ exponential growth thereby ensuring automation plays a major role in safeguarding the food supply against future disruptions.”
“We’ve been an investor in Soft Robotics since the very early stages and their progress in the last 18 months has been phenomenal. Their SoftAI solution, combining patented soft robotic grippers, ultra-fast 3D vision, and sophisticated AI that evaluates a scene to autonomously choose the optimal grasping solution, is the future of robotics and an absolute game-changer for the food and logistics industries,”
said Kevin Dunlap, managing partner at Calibrate Ventures.
“Companies in these sectors are rapidly adopting SoftAI in their factories to automate picking and sorting of fragile or irregularly-shaped products such as meats, produce, and seasonal items that previously had to be hand-sorted.”
Even though the robots are high-priced, they have the potential for achieving efficiency and improving the business.
