Fulfil Solutions emerges from stealth with $60M in funding

-

Fulfil Solutions, a robotics company that offers an automated grocery fulfillment system, announced that it is emerging from stealth mode with $60 million in Series B financing. 

Fulfil creates robots that can pick and pack grocery items across all product categories and temperature states. The company opened its first fully automated micro-fulfillment warehouse a few months ago in Mountain View, California in the San Francisco Bay area. 

“To address the many challenges facing online grocery, retailers must adopt efficient automation that substantially reduces costs and provides the accuracy, quality and convenience customers expect,” Fulfil CEO and President Mir Aamir said. “That’s why our fully automated solution represents such a revolutionary step forward. Not only does it make online grocery retailing profitable while meeting customer expectations, but it also prioritizes social and environmental responsibility by cutting carbon emissions, eliminating food waste and enabling healthier food to reach more households at lower cost.”

This micro-fulfillment warehouse was created in partnership with The Save Mart Companies, and it powers a same-day grocery delivery and pick-up service called Lucky Now. When Lucky Now receives an order, Fulfill’s robots start picking up groceries and packing them within minutes. When the order is fulfilled, the robots bring the finished orders to a waiting area where drivers can collect them. 

“The Save Mart Companies is thrilled to embrace innovative technologies that help deliver on-demand groceries to our customers on their own terms,” Shane Sampson, Executive Chairman of the Board at The Save Mart Companies, said. “With Lucky Now, powered by Fulfil’s robotic automation, we are excited to offer the best value on local and fresh products that our shoppers have come to know and trust.”

Fulfil’s system uses advanced AI, machine learning, and optical and sensor technologies to enable grocery picking. The company’s mobile robots split and sequence grocery items to prevent damage and minimize pack time, while dispense stations drop item into the mobile robot’s tops and redistribute inventory to balance loads. During all of this, a database tracks every item’s location, origin and expiration to ensure order accuracy. 

Fulfil’s funding round was led by Eclipse, and included participation from Khosla Ventures and DCVC. 

The post Fulfil Solutions emerges from stealth with $60M in funding appeared first on The Robot Report.



from The Robot Report - Robotics News, Analysis & Research https://ift.tt/9V4TxkE
via artificialconference

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Valiant TMS and Realtime Robotics partner to cut programming, cycle times

-
Image
Valiant TMS is integrating robot motion optimization as a service. Source: Realtime Robotics Realtime Robotics today announced that Valiant TMS will integrate its Optimization-as-a-Service offering with customers’ manufacturing operations. The companies said the combination of Realtime’s proprietary software and engineering expertise with Valiant TMS’s manufacturing industry experience will improve the efficiency and productivity of automated operations. With Optimization-as-a-Service, companies can identify and eliminate production bottlenecks, significantly reducing cycle time and programming time, said Realtime Robotics. “Manufacturers are always looking for ways to improve their production processes, but few have the time or resources to spend on such a lengthy, involved task,” said Peter Howard, CEO of Realtime Robotics, in a release . “We’re thrilled that our optimization solution has struck a chord with so many, automating the task of generating and testing potential layou...
Read more

Ocado wins UK patent lawsuit over Autostore

-
Image
On the left, Autostore’s ASRS, and on the right, Ocado’s ASRS. | Source: Autostore, Ocado Yesterday, the UK High Court ruled that Autostore’s patents, which have been the subject of a patent infringement case against Ocado , were invalid, and that Ocado did not infringe upon them. Both Autostore and Ocado operate automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) that operate on similar principles. Autostore filed the lawsuit in October 2020, when it asserted that Ocado infringed upon six of its patents. The European Patent Office invalidated two of these patents before judgment was made on the case, and two other patents were withdrawn by Autostore before the hearing started.  Judge Hacon invalidated the remaining two patents because AutoStore had disclosed its technology publically in a business deal with the Central Bank of Russia before the company filed its patents. Halcon ruled that even if the patents were valid, the Ocado Smart Platform (OSP) did not infringe on the...
Read more

Update on AgTech automation at CNHI

-
Image
The Robot Report Podcast · Update on AgTech automation at CNHI The Robot Report Podcast · 2023 year in review: GenAI, humanoids dominate robotics industry   In Episode 138 of The Robot Report Podcast, co-hosts Mike Oitzman and Eugene Demaitre catch up with Marc Kermisch, global chief digital and information officer at CNH Industrial, or CNHI. Kermisch takes us through the latest developments at CNHI in agriculture autonomy and digitization, explaining how robots and data can help farmers and growers improve yields and efficiency. We also recap the latest robotics news and walk through an update from robotics and automation companies that attended this month’s 2024 CES show. News of the week Locus Robotics layoffs The mobile robot maker last week confirmed that it had a “small, targeted RIF,” or reduction in force. North American robot orders dropped last year, according to the Association for Advancing Automation ( A3 ). Warehouse construction also declined by 2...
Read more