Warehouse Robotics Startup Raises $20 Million
Playground Global, a venture capital fund co-founded by Andy Rubin, led the round for CommonSense Robotics
Tel Aviv-based warehouse robotics startup CommonSense Robotics Ltd. raised $20 million in a Series A funding round, the company announced Thursday.
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The round was led by Playground Global, a venture capital fund co-founded by Andy Rubin, the developer of the Android operating system. Additional participants include Innovation Endeavors, Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s venture capital firm and Tel Aviv-based Aleph Venture Capital, both of which participated in the company’s $6 million seed round completed in August 2017.
A CommonSense Robotics' robot. Photo: PR Founded in 2015, CommonSense Robotics develops robotic and artificial intelligence technologies that enable urban retailers to offer quick deliveries of food and pharma products.
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Turning underutilized urban retail spaces into delivery centers where robots store, sort, and process inventory, the company aims to tackle the last mile distribution challenge, making 1-hour deliveries within the city an affordable option for retailers. Last mile distribution is considered one of the key areas in which small retailers are unable to compete with e-commerce steamrollers such as Amazon and Chinese Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
With 65 employees, the company currently operates a non-commercial facility in Tel Aviv and is in the process of establishing an additional facility in central Israel. U.S. and U.K. centers are planned to launch in the upcoming year.
