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Digit has been at work with clients since 2018. The robotic presently strikes totes and packages and unloades trailers. | Supply: Agility Robotics
Agility Robotics, the corporate behind the bipedal robotic Digit, introduced in $150 million in Collection B financing. DCVC and Playground International led the funding spherical, which additionally included participation from the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund (AIIF).
Amazon introduced its newest enterprise fund funding program earlier this week. The $1 billion fund was created to assist innovation in buyer success, logistics and the availability chain.
“The aim of the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund is to assist rising applied sciences by direct investments, designed to spur invention and clear up for the world’s hardest issues throughout buyer success operations, logistics, and provide chain options,” Katherine Chen, head of AIIF, stated. “Agility’s method to designing robotics for a blended workforce is really distinctive and might have a big ripple impact for a variety of industries, and we hope others observe go well with to speed up innovation on this approach.”
Agility is a part of AIIF’s first spherical of investments, which additionally included different robotics firms like BionicHIVE, an organization creating adaptable autonomous robots for warehouses, and Mantis Robotics, an organization creating a tactile robotic arm that makes use of sensor expertise to work alongside folks.
“Unprecedented client and company demand have created a unprecedented want for robots to assist folks within the office,” Damion Shelton, CEO of Agility, stated. “With this funding, Agility can ramp up the supply of robots to fill roles the place there’s an unmet want.”
Agility started buyer deployments of its robotic Digit in 2018, and plans to make use of the funding to proceed to push the robotic out into the world. Digit was designed to be a flexible robotic that may carry out many duties, not like different robots which are objective constructed for a single activity.
Digit has a max velocity of 1.5 m/s and might run for 3 hours doing mild work. Doing heavy work, the robotic will final 1.5 hours. The robotic can presently transfer totes and packages and unload trailers, however the firm hopes to develop its capabilities to final mile deliveries quickly.
The corporate plans to make use of the newest spherical of funds to develop its present operations and improve hiring within the U.S. Agility plans to double its headcount by 2024. The funding spherical additionally included participation from earlier traders MFV Companions, ITIC, Robotics Hub, Safar Companions and TDK Ventures.
Agility relies in Corvallis, Oregon, just lately opened a brand new workplace in Pittsburgh, PA, and has operations in Palo Alto, CA. The corporate closed its Collection A funding spherical in October 2020 at $20 million.
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