Today (Monday), Israeli startup CAJA Robotics, which develops smart robots for warehouse logistics, announced a $12 million funding round. The investment was led by New Era Capital Partners, with participation from Angels and company stakeholders.
Robots manage the warehouse
CAJA Robotics develops two types of warehouse logistics robots - hardware and software for managing the bots. The first one is Lift Robot, a very big robot that’s tasked with storage optimization, replenishment, and preparing wholesale shipments.
CAJA’s second product is Cart Robot, a small robot that’s programmed for speed, it’s responsible for retrieving the relevant package and distributing it to the next stage as quickly as possible. Both robots are controlled through CAJA Robotics’ proprietary software, which utilizes Deep Learning algorithms to manage every robot’s movement.
“The program is aware at all times to the location of every box in the warehouse, its content, and demand priority. In addition, the program coordinates with Warehouse Management Software and tracks everything including new orders, outgoing shipments, most importantly it keeps an updated storage catalog and optimizes the storage space to adjust according to projected demand and orders,” explains CAJA Robotics CRO and EVP Hanna Yanovsky in a conversation with Geektime.
Yanovsky adds that the system is totally automated and operates in a sterile, humanless environment. She notes that the “field is very dynamic, demand increases exponentially, and the automated system must adjust to this reality.”
According to Yankovsky, the robotic system is easily implemented into the existing warehouse landscape, with no need to adjust existing infrastructure or budget for extra expenses. “The warehouse will look like a warehouse and our system will provide a flexible solution that will adjust to varying heights, standard shelving, plastic and cardboard boxes, unleveled floors, existing columns, and more,” she explained.
The company’s robots and control system is currently operational at Bergen Logistics in New Jersey, providing a logistics solution that handles thousands of shipments ordered from the NYC metropolitan.
Yankovsky continues to tell that the company received an increase in demand following the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent need for more automated goods logistics technologies - as well as due to the eCommerce boom and social distancing regulations.
She also noted that the funding round was impacted by the global pandemic, at least partly. “Naturally, when face-to-face interaction is different, trust builds a little slower. Moreover, it was hard to go abroad to meet foreign investors,” said Yanovsky. She also told us that despite the logistics automation industry being less familiar to Israeli investors, the company found a few during the current round.
CAJA Robotics was founded in 2014 by Guy Glass and Reuven Della-Torre. To date, the company has raised $26 million. CAJA report that the newly acquired capital will help enhance global sales and marketing efforts, accelerate production, and for implementing systems at both local and global customer sites.
