A four-year-old warehouse robotics software startup that's benefited from the boom in deliveries during the pandemic is the Bay Area's newest unicorn.
Redwood City-based Dexterity Inc. said on Wednesday that it raised $140 million in Series B funding at a valuation of $1.4 billion. That's more than double what it was figured to be worth when it came out of stealth last year in a $56.2 million Series A funding.
Dexterity said robots equipped with its technology can be used by customers without having to modify their warehouses. Its software is designed to equip commodity robot arms made by others with vision, touch and contextual intelligence that can handle unstructured piles of goods with human-like dexterity and speed.
The company boasts that machines using its software can handle everything from loosely packed deformable polybags, to delicate hot-dog buns and floppy tortillas, from poorly sealed cardboard boxes to bags of earthworms or even a molten birthday cake.
Dexterity said it has helped to move over 14 million items at its customers’ sites over the past two years. It offers a full-stack of technology that includes software, hardware design, deployment and 24/7 support.
"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," Dexterity founder and CEO Samir Menon said in Wednesday's announcement.
The new funding was led by existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Kleiner Perkins. Obvious Ventures, B37 Ventures and Presidio Ventures also participated.
The company employs 135 today, up from 45 a year ago.
