Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
Locus Robotics is raising serious cash in its bid to automate warehouses, bringing industry investment to $70 million this year.
Illustration: Jay Keeree
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A few years ago, Amazon.com Inc. triggered a robot arms race when it purchased a company called Kiva Systems, maker of automated warehouse robots. Now its would-be rivals are landing bigger and bigger cash injections to try to compete with the e-commerce giant.
Locus Robotics, a spinoff of a warehouse company that decided to build its own robots after the Amazon deal in 2012, raised another $25 million in venture capital, bringing its total funding to more than $33 million, the company announced last week.