Draft:Locus Robotics

Locus Robotics is a company selling mobile robots for use in order fulfillment warehouses. The company is known for autonomous robots used in the logistics and fulfillment industries. These include robots that can collaborate with human workers in the warehouses of e-commerce and logistics companies such as DHL.

Rick Faulk currently serves as the company’s CEO.

History
Locus Robotics was founded in 2014 by Bruce Welty in Wilmington, Massachusetts. Its precursor, Quiet Logistics, is a Third-party logistics company that was founded to take advantage of the Kiva product. It was in the business of picking out e-commerce orders with robotic technology and was sourcing its robots from Kiva Systems. Amazon, however, bought this robotic supplier for its pioneering autonomous mobile robots, discontinued its commercial business, reserving them for internal use only. The valuation of Quiet Logistics dropped to zero due to its inability to secure robotic technology.

In search of alternative business, Quiet Logistics founded Locus Robotics to replace the Kiva product their business relied on with the aim of building its own version of autonomous robots and maintaining control of it. It initially secured $8 million in funding after its announcement in May of 2014. It was separated from Quiet Logistics and became an independent company in 2016. The company was able to raise a total of $416 million in total equity funding. Investors include Hercules Capital, Tiger Global Management, Silicon Valley Bank, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, among others. Quiet Logistics became one of its customers and continues to use the Locus robots, now marketed as LocusBots, in its facilities.

In 2019 Locus expanded into European markets, establishing EU headquarters in Amsterdam in 2021.

Operations
By 2021, Locus Robotics has been generating more than $100 million in annual revenue, and reached “unicorn” status - or a startup with a $1 billion valuation - on February 10, 2021. In 2022, it has raised another $117 million for the development of its warehouse robots. Goldman Sachs Asset Management and G2 Venture Partners are among the lead investors. This recent funding brought the company’s valuation to just under $2 billion.

The company maintained that the robots in development can be easily integrated into existing warehouses, beefing up the company’s average capability of three million picks per day for its entire global operations. The robots increase efficiency by allowing workers to load inventory from one space while they sort and pack them for shipping. This is in contrast to the Amazon Robotics (formerly Kiva Systems) robots where the worker stands at a station and the robot brings a shelving unit to them so that they can remove items for an order.

The company has over 90 customers around the world, including CEVA Logistics, Boots UK Ltd. and Geodis SA. According to Faulk, Locus Robotics has deployed more than 10,000 robots. Locus Robotics’ customers also include DHL, which temporarily used 2,000 robots to augment its order and fulfillment capabilities in its facilities in December 2022.