Rabot Raises $2M to Optimize E-commerce Warehouse Operations with Vision AI
Rabot Inc. (“Rabot”), an AI solution provider empowering e-commerce warehouses operations, today announced it has secured $2M in pre-seed funding with backing from Newfund Capital, BootstrapLabs, Forum Ventures, Interlace Ventures and angel investors that include key industry leaders in the Supply Chain Industry.
Rabot is on a mission to build the world’s leading platform for warehouse operational intelligence to augment workforces in high speed and high volume environments. The company has developed a computer vision solution, Rabot Pack, to help standardize and streamline the packing process with visibility into warehouse packing operations. This has allowed their clients to save valuable time by providing real time insights, fast track their quality control process, and reduce costly errors..
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“Truth is, there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed in the supply chain of e-commerce,” commented co-founder and CEO, Channa Ranatunga. “E-commerce sales represented more than $800B last year in the US alone. The growth and the prevalence of e-commerce is increasing, especially in a pandemic-stricken world. This means that quality and velocity both need to be addressed for a growing volume and complexity of orders in conjunction with efficiency. This is a huge challenge for our clients today.”
The three founders — Channa and Isura Ranatunga, and Sandeep Suresh — are friends who have known each other since childhood. With over 25 years of experience in supply chain management, AI/ML product development, and design, the team saw an opportunity to leverage technology to augment workers in this high-stress environment in a gradual manner that comes with minimal workflow disruption.
“Rabot’s vision AI solution is not only solving current challenges of visibility and productivity in e-commerce fulfillment warehouses today, but also improving collaboration and communication within warehouse operations teams” said entrepreneur and investor Henri Deshays of Newfund Capital. “We are excited to partner with Channa, Isura, and Sandeep on their journey.”
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Existing customers have seen immediate benefits including an 80% reduction in resolution time for orders and doubling new warehouse employees’ productivity. With this initial fundraising step, Rabot plans to grow the company to meet these increasing demands. Pilot deployments at existing sites are converting to full scale implementations while the company ramps up deployments to new customers.
“We originally invested in Rabot’s pre-seed round when they joined our accelerator in July 2021,” said James Murphy, Partner at Forum VC. “This team of ex-Apple robotics engineers and logistics experts are building the future of operational excellence in logistics while advancing the shift to full automation. It’s great to continue with them on this journey through another round of funding.”
