Attabotics, an industrial automation startup that has created a robotic warehousing and fulfillment system, has raised a $25 million Series B round to help towards its goal of changing the supply chain industry.
“We applied the three-dimensional structure of ant colonies into a fulfillment system, built for modern commerce.”
The round saw participation tech sector hedge fund Coatue, Comcast Ventures (an investment arm of telco conglomerate Comcast), and Honeywell alongside returning early investors early-stage VC firm Forerunner Ventures as well as Werklund Growth Fund.
Founded in 2015, Attabotics is a 3D robotic supply chain company that looks to bring scale and efficiency to its customers’ supply chains. The capital from the Series B will help the startup with what it called “continued, explosive growth.” Attabotics plans to use the funding to grow its team, scale its manufacturing operations, as well as develop new (unspecified) technologies. The $25 million raise brings Attabotics total funding to date to $32.7 million.
A Calgary-based company touts itself as an “all-in-one supply chain system can reduce a retailer’s required warehouse needs by 85 percent.” It is developing a robot-centric storage and retrieval systems that reduce e-commerce warehousing and fulfillment costs. The startup works with major brands and retailers spanning apparel, food and beverage, as well as home goods. It has fulfillment centres across Canada and the US.
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“We applied the three-dimensional structure of ant colonies into a fulfillment system, built for modern commerce, that is flexible, scalable, and accelerates the shipping and delivery process,” said Scott Gravelle, Attabotics founder as well as CEO and CTO. “Commerce is at a crossroads, and in order for retailers and brands of all types and sizes to thrive, they need to adapt and take advantage of new technologies to effectively meet consumers’ growing demands.”
In November, Attabotics won the fast growth award for companies over $5 million in revenue at the Start Alberta Awards. Just a week later the company received $1.3 million from the federal government as part of its Western Innovation (WINN) Initiative. Not long after that, it received $4.5 million from the City of Calgary’s Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund because of its ability to leverage skilled workers from the struggling oil and gas economy. Attabotics was also named as one of the top 11 prairie startups to watch in 2019.
With 85 percent of its staff coming from oil and gas, according to the Calgary Herald , Attabotics had grown its team from 11 employees in 2017 to 115 at the end of 2018, along with revenue growth from the hundreds of thousands to tens of millions.
“E-commerce is driving continued growth opportunities for advanced automation and robotics in the warehouse sector,” said Murray Grainger, managing director of Honeywell Ventures. “Honeywell continues to make strategic investments in this space and we are excited to partner with Attabotics, who are developing innovative technologies to improve order fulfillment and enhance supply chain operations.”