Smooth Robotics raises $26 million as staffing shortages proceed throughout industries • TechCrunch

I spent final week in Boston, assembly with a number of of the realm’s high automation startups. Smooth Robotics — based mostly in close by Bedford, Massachusetts — is a kind of names that comes up rather a lot. Because the idea of soppy robotics grippers have more and more come into vogue, the corporate of the identical identify has been reaping a lot of that windfall.

At this time, as an example, it introduced a $26 million Sequence C, led by Tyson Ventures. The VC arm of Tyson Meals is a pure match right here. In spite of everything, meals manufacturing has lengthy been a giant piece of Smooth Robotics’ technique. Its compliant grippers do an excellent job selecting up fragile and inconsistently sized foodstuffs, from meat to provide — a longstanding problem for extra inflexible programs.

“At Tyson, we’re frequently exploring new areas in automation that may improve security and enhance the productiveness of our workforce members,” Tyson Ventures’ Rahul Ray stated in a launch. “Smooth Robotics’ revolutionary robotic expertise, laptop imaginative and prescient and AI platform have the potential to remodel the meals business and can play a key function in any firm’s automation journey.”

Marel and Johnsonville additionally joined the spherical as new traders, following a $23 million Sequence B with a $10 million extension raised in June of final 12 months. On the time, Smooth Robotics cited pandemic-fueled job loss as a significant motivator within the funding spherical. Clearly the job scenario hasn’t gotten significantly better — significantly in industries like meat packing — whilst funding has largely slowed down throughout the board over the previous 12 months.

The agency says the brand new spherical of funding will go towards accelerating the deployment of its mGripAI system, which mixes 3D imaginative and prescient with a tender gripping system. Smooth Robotics says the right storm of pandemic-fueled points has resulted in “the 4 largest gross sales quarters within the firm’s eight-year historical past.”