Warehouse robotics and automation are the current trend for large scale warehouse operations. Minimizing overhead, improving efficiency and speed are all attractive aspects of warehouse automation. Amazon recently invested in a 200,000 sqm automated in Sydney
In the first quarter of 2020, despite a global economic slowdown due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, spending on robotics startups was $381 million USD. This is a 57% increase compared to the same period in 2019.
Although spending in warehouse and logistics robotics exploded during this period, it bucked the industry trend of a decrease in spending on logistics and warehouses in light of the COVID-19 Pandemic. There was a total of $1 Billion raised in venture capital for this period, compared to $1.4 Billion in 2019.
This shows there is confidence in the technology moving forward. In a post COVID-19 world, with social distancing measures in place and the “new normal” robotics can provide solutions to many problems.
In the past month, Third Wave Automation, a robotics startup in California, raised $15 million USD in venture capital funding. They are specialists in autonomous forklift truck technologies. SVT Robotics raised $3.5 million USD in seed investment for their company which aims at bringing software to simplify robotic deployments.
