LEXINGTON, Mass. – Berkshire Grey, which develops automation solutions for retail, e-commerce, and logistics fulfillment operations, announced today it raised $263 million in Series B financing. Participants in the round include SoftBank, Khosla Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, and Canaan.

The company said the new funding will support Berkshire Grey’s global expansion, acquisitions, and team growth. The company’s robotics solutions aim to accelerate the transformation of customers’ logistics operations to address consumer expectations, labor shortages, and competitive pressures.

Berkshire Grey develops intelligent robotic systems that automate tasks “never before performed by machines in commercial settings.” The solutions can automatically pick, pack, and sort individual items, inner packs, cases, and parcels to automate omni-channel warehouse and distribution operations, the company said. With technologies such as artificial intelligence, computer vision, machine learning, advanced sensing, novel gripping, and robotics, the company said it can handle “the broadest assortment of products, packaging, and parcels – and all while continuously improving speed and performance through autonomous learning.”

Improving efficiency, optimizing labor costs

The company said its customers typically can optimize picking labor costs in break pack and e-commerce operations by 70% to 80%, and improve throughput by 25% to 35%, when implementing its solutions.

“Our customers from leading enterprises in retail, e-commerce, and logistics are selecting Berkshire Grey as a competitive differentiator,” said Tom Wagner, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Berkshire Grey. “With our intelligent robotic automation, our clients see faster and more efficient supply chain operations that enable them to address the wants of today’s savvy consumer.”

Berkshire Grey emerged from stealth mode in December 2018, announcing that it was quietly deploying “game-changing AI-enabled robotics solutions” at Global 100 retailers and logistics companies looking to transform their omni-channel fulfillment. Earlier this month, the company announced the appointment of Craig Hattabaugh as vice president and general manager, SCG. Previously, Hattabaugh was the CEO of CIMCON Software, and also served as senior vice president for the analytic business unit of TIBCO Software.

“Every dimension of our business is expanding, including strategic customers, employees, our technology portfolio and geographic coverage,” said Wagner. “Bringing in an experienced executive like Craig is a key part of sustaining our customer’s success. Craig’s proven track record in scaling high technology businesses is a great fit, at the right time and all of the team here at Berkshire Grey welcomes him.”

Editor’s note: This post appeared originally on our sister site, Robotics Business Review.