Robotics tech startup Dexterity bags $140 million to build intelligent robotic systems for logistics

Dexterity, a California-based robotics startup today announced it has raised an additional $140 million in Series B equity funding and debt to support its first 1,000 robot installations for new and current customers. The four-year-old Dexterity offers robots as a service solution for logistics, warehousing, and supply chain operations.

The additional cash infusion was backed by existing investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Kleiner Perkins greatly expanded their commitment to Dexterity by leading the Series B, with additional participation from Obvious Ventures, B37 Ventures, and Presidio Ventures.

Dexterity’s intelligent robotics approach has enabled logistics providers to automate some of the most complicated tasks in the warehouse without needing to modify their existing infrastructure.

Founded by Samir Menon, Dexterity’s robotic software-as-a-service (SaaS) product solutions equip commodity robots with vision, touch, and contextual intelligence to handle unstructured piles of goods with human-like dexterity and speed. Specifically, Dexterity’s solutions excel at handling the hardest to grasp items in any warehouse and without requiring expensive and bulky auxiliary infrastructure.

The company also solves labor shortages by delegating repetitive tasks – such as sortation, palletizing, and fulfillment – so employees can focus on higher-level, cognitive work. The company’s full-stack robotics systems are in production 24/7 with a support and performance guarantee.

As an industry first, Dexterity’s robotic systems have handled 50,000+ SKUs ranging from loosely packed deformable polybags, to delicate hot-dog buns, to floppy tortillas, to poorly sealed cardboard boxes, to bags of earthworms, to trays and crates of consumer food, to even a molten birthday cake.

“Customers in retail, consumer goods manufacturing and parcel handling need robots to scale quickly in order to manage the ever-increasing volume and variety of packages moving through their distribution centers,” said Samir Menon, Dexterity’s CEO. “Dexterity is grateful to be at the forefront of delivering intelligent robotic systems in production across existing customer sites with the goal of rapidly transforming their warehouse operations.”

To date, Dexterity’s fleet of installed robots has moved over 14 million items in production at its customers’ sites over the past two years. Dexterity’s full-stack approach includes software, hardware design and integration, deployment, and 24/7 support with a performance guarantee for customers as they scale up.

Dexterity Team

Below is a video of Dexterity robots in action.