Tyson Foods has thrown its weight behind Harvard spinout Soft Robotics to bring the series B total to $33m.
Soft Robotics, a US-based robotic technology spinout of Harvard University, increased its series B round to $33m on Tuesday following an extension backed by Tyson Ventures, a vehicle for meat processor Tyson Foods.
ABB Technology Ventures and Tekfen Ventures, investment units for power and automation technology producer ABB and conglomerate Tekfen respectively, also contributed to the extension.
Soft Robotics had obtained $23m co-led by Calibrate Ventures and Material Impact in January 2020. Tekfen, conglomerate Yamaha, industrial appliance manufacturer Honeywell, industrial robot supplier Fanuc and Scale Venture Partners also invested as part of the original tranche.
Founded in 2012, Soft Robotics develops padded robotic grippers that gently grasp objects to automate supply chain tasks involving unstructured and delicate items. The tools deploy artificial intelligence-driven machine vision to evaluate objects.
The spinout raised the additional series B capital to meet demand fuelled by the pandemic, despite having revealed at the time of the original close that the round was oversubscribed.
The money will also allow Soft Robotics to launch its 3D vision and artificial intelligence software, dubbed SoftAI, that will enable robots to bulk pick objects with the precision of human hand-eye coordination.
The spinout earlier secured $20m in a 2018 round led by Hyperplane Venture Capital that featured Honeywell Ventures, ABB Technology Ventures, Taylor Farms Ventures, Tekfen Ventures, Scale, Calibrate, Material Impact and Haiyin Capital.
Material Impact had led a $4.5m round in 2015 led with contributions from Taylor Farm Ventures and Haiyin Capital.
– Feature image courtesy of Soft Robotics
