Robotic truck unloading continues to advance. Pickle Robot Co. yesterday said that it has raised $50 million in Series B funding and that six customers placed orders during the third quarter for more than 30 robots to deploy in the first half of 2025. The new orders include pilot conversions, existing customer expansions, and new customer adoption.
“Pickle Robot customers are experiencing the value of ‘Physical AI’ applied to a common logistics process that challenges thousands of operations every day,” said AJ Meyer, founder and CEO of Pickle Robot. “The new funding and our strategic customer relationships enable Pickle to chart the future of supply chain robotics, rapidly expand our core product capabilities, and grow our business to deliver tremendous customer value now and in the future.”
Founded in 2018, Pickle Robot said its robots are designed to autonomously unload trucks, trailers, and import containers at human-scale or better performance. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company‘s goal is to relieve scarce workers of difficult, dirty, and sometimes dangerous work at distribution centers around the world.
Physical AI unloads multiple types of items
Truck unloading is one of the most labor-intensive, physically demanding, and highest-turnover work areas in logistics, noted Pickle Robot.
The company claimed that its Physical AI combines sensors and a computer vision system with industrial robotics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. It uses generative AI foundation models trained on millions of data points from real logistics and warehouse operations.
The Pickle Unload Systems have been collaborating with staffers in production operations at distribution centers since the summer of 2023. To date, they have unloaded over 10 million lb. (4.5 million kg.) of merchandise from import containers and domestic floor-loaded trailers.
The company said its customers include distributors of footwear, apparel, power tools, toys, kitchenware, packaging materials, small appliances, and other general merchandise. Its product roadmap is expanding to service parcel-type freight.
Pickle Robot plans to build out tech, marketing
The company said its Series B funding included participation from a strategic customer. Teradyne Robotics Ventures, Toyota Ventures, Ranpak, Third Kind Venture Capital, One Madison Group, Hyperplane, Catapult Ventures, and others also participated.
“Pickle is hitting its strides delivering innovation, development, commercial traction, and customer satisfaction,” said Omar Asali, CEO of Ranpak and a Pickle board member.
“The company is building groundbreaking technology while executing on essential recurring parts of a successful business like field service and manufacturing management,” he said. “It is a testament to the strong team at Pickle that world-class customers want to work with them and that investors are excited about their trajectory.”
The company said it plans to use its latest funding to accelerate the development of new feature sets. It also plans build out its commercial teams to unlock new markets and geographies worldwide.
It added that it is “on a mission to automate inbound and outbound processes at 1 million warehouse doors over the next 10 years.”