ManufacturingInvestment

Intelligence and robotics company BotsAndUs has secured £10.5 million in seed funding to expand its logistics-disrupting solution globally. 

The London company collects real-time insights using fully autonomous, mobile robots to quickly process pallets at every stage in their journey throughout a warehouse. 

Triggered by the arrival of goods, the robots capture the volume and condition as they enter and leave the warehouse. The same robots scan goods on shelves and record their location and quantity. 

Lakestar led the round, with participation from Maersk Growth, Kindred Capital, and Capnamic.

“BotsAndUs is already paving the way for artificial intelligence and robotics to completely transform logistics,” said co-founder and CEO Andrei Danescu.

“Our integrated AI and robotics platform is helping companies boost their performance and unlock their full potential. We’re confident we can make our vision a reality: transforming logistics on a global scale with real time data to eliminate errors and enhance performance across all steps.”

BotsAndUs has already won key customers across various industries. In addition to Maersk and Huboo, BotsAndUs works with Menzies Aviation, the air cargo company that services more than 200 airport locations, including at Europe’s largest airport, London Heathrow. 

The company recently entered into a partnership with Maersk – the global integrator of container logistics, to collaborate with Maersk’s warehousing and contract logistics division, initially in one of their warehouses, exploring automating inventory management and acceptance processes, and with time to improve customers’ visibility and access to inventory across facilities. 

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With the fresh capital, BotsAndUs is targeting markets including Germany, France, Nordics, USA, and Canada and driving product development.

“More than 80% of warehouses have no automation at all. With warehouses expected to grow by 50% by 2025 and labour shortages of over 30%, automation clearly holds the key to ensuring logistics operations are as optimised as possible,” said Lakestar partner Christoph Schuh. 

“Logistics is an industry that always faced margin pressures and little means to invest into digital infrastructure. BotsAndUs real-time data capture abilities create this infrastructure and the basis for long term automation of warehousing operations. 

“We’re delighted to join the stellar team on their journey to transform logistics and enable companies to perform at their best.”

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