On the heels of a $150 million new round of funding, a local robotics company has become the latest Massachusetts tech business to hit "unicorn" status with a $1 billion valuation.
Wilmington-based Locus Robotics Corp. announced on Wednesday it raised $150 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management and Bond. Existing investors Scale Venture Partners and Prologis Ventures, the venture capital arm of Prologis (NYSE: PLD), participated in the Series E round.
In an interview with the Business Journal, Locus Robotics CEO Rick Faulk said that the company is the first robotics company ever in Massachusetts to become a unicorn.
"It feels very exciting," Faulk said.
Faulk said that the company will use the money to expand its product line and bring in new hires. Over the next year, the company will hire between 50 and 75 new employees across sales, marketing and engineering, according to Faulk. Currently, Locus Robotics employs 165 full-time employees in Massachusetts.
Existing Massachusetts-based unicorn companies include Flywire Corp., which hit that mark in 2020 and is considered among the candidates for a potential initial public offering later this year, and restaurant payments company Toast Inc., which includes Tiger Global Management among its backers.
Launched in 2016, Locus Robotics is a maker of robots mostly used in fulfillment warehouses for e-commerce companies — a market segment that has been booming during social-distancing times, as people prefer to shop from the safety of their laptops. The company has more than 40 customers, including CEVA Logistics and DHL, and operates in 80 warehouses around the world. Locus's robots use so-called "locus points" as references to find their way around warehouses.
The Series E round comes less than a year after Locus Robotics raised more than $40 million in funding from Zebra Ventures, the strategic investment arm of Zebra Technologies, and other investors.
Massachusetts tech unicorns 2020
Valuation: $1 billion
Total funding: $422 million
Unicorn date: 05/06/2018
What it does: Low-code rapid application development software
HQ: Boston
Founding year: 2001
Valuation: $1 billion
Total funding: $263 million
Unicorn date: 02/13/2020
What it does: Financial services software
HQ: Boston
Founding year: 2009
Pictured: Mike Massaro (pictured) is CEO of Flywire
Valuation: $1 billion
Total funding: $388 million
Unicorn date: 08/05/2019
What it does: Endpoint security software
HQ: Boston
Founding year: 2012
Pictured: From left, Cybereason co-founders Yonatan Striem-Amit, CTO, Lior Div, CEO and Yossi Naar, chief visionary officer
10. Valuation: $1.053 billion
Total funding: $454.5 million
Unicorn date: 01/21/2020
What it does: Security software for developers
HQ: Boston
Founding year: 2015
Pictured: Guy Podjarny (left), founder and president of Boston-based Snyk, and Peter McKay, CEO
Valuation: $1.065 billion
Total funding: $103.2 million
Unicorn date: 08/01/2018
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HQ: Somerville
Founding year: 2011
Pictured: The Formlabs printers are called Form 2, Form Wash and Cure
Valuation: $1.13 billion
Total funding: $318 million
Unicorn date: 03/06/2014
What it does: Data management, cloud backup and recovery
HQ: Waltham
Founding year: 2009
Pictured: Ash Ashutosh, founder and CEO of Actifio
Valuation: $1.2 billion
Total funding: $245 million
Unicorn date: 04/29/2015
What it does: Enterprise data and cloud storage software
HQ: Waltham
Founding year: 2011
Valuation: $1.25 billion
Total funding: $320 million
Unicorn date: 04/01/2019
What it does: Software for corporate catering
HQ: Boston
Founding year: 2007
Pictured: Stefania Mallett, co-founder and CEO of ezCater
Valuation: $1.26 billion
Total funding: $396.5 million
Unicorn date: 07/15/2020
What it does: The e-commerce company looks for top-reviewed products on sale on Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and buys the brands from the third-party sellers. Then, it optimizes operations, taking care of branding and search
HQ: Walpole
Founding year: 2018
Pictured: Carlos Cashman, co-CEO and co-founder of Thrasio, started the company with fellow co-CEO and co-founder Joshua Silberstein
Valuation: $1.3 billion
Total funding: $431 million
Unicorn date: 09/17/2019
What it does: Artificial intelligence-based software for enterprise data analysis
HQ: Boston
Founding year: 2012
Pictured: The "Tech development area" at the office of DataRobot
Valuation: $1.4 billion
Total funding: $897 million
Unicorn date: 07/10/2018
What it does: Restaurant software
HQ: Boston
Founding year: 2011
Pictured: From left to right: Toast co-founder and president Steve Fredette; Toast CEO Chris Comparato; Toast co-founder and president Aman Narang; Toast co-founder and chief technology officer Jonathan Grimm
Valuation: $1.4 billion
Total funding: $1 billion and $116 million
Unicorn date: 12/06/2017
What it does: The agriculture-technology startup uses microbiology research to help farmers replace chemicals and fertilizers and increase crop yield
HQ: Boston
Founding year: 2013
Pictured: An Indigo grow room in Charlestown
