Warehouse automation startup Mytra snags $120M in funding – News

Supply chain robotics and infrastructure startup Mytra Inc. says it’s going to supercharge warehousing efficiency after closing on a bumper $120 million funding round today.

The company is the creator of an innovative automated storage and retrieval system that combines robotics with artificial intelligence software to dramatically simplify warehouse operations. It’s really a new kind of warehouse infrastructure for storing basically any product that can be fitted onto a standard wooden pallet, up to a maximum load of 1,360 kilograms.

Mytra says the warehouse and logistics industries are in urgent need of a solid dose of automation, for they lag far behind other industrial processes, despite being one of the most important. Indeed, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that material handling and movement represents around 50% of manufacturing labor.

Yet the methods by which it’s done have barely changed in the last century. Warehouses everywhere look much the same, with a series of shelves separated by aisles and products stacked as high as it’s possible for a forklift truck to reach.

The need for so much human labor is one of the main reasons why there are more than 400,000 unfilled jobs in the industry today, and the National Association of Manufacturers believes that number could reach more than 2 million by 2030.

Moreover, Mytra argues that most warehouses are inefficient in terms of space. Their layout means that around 60% of the real estate is effectively “dead space” in the form of aisles and clearance that’s used by human workers to navigate and process products instead of storing them.

High density, automated storage and retrieval

Mytra wants to change this and help warehouses both in terms of space and efficiency. It has developed a highly automated storage and retrieval system that utilizes three main components: a customizable robot, a modular storage rack and an AI-powered operating system.

The company’s modular matrix structure uses simple steel cubes or “cells” that can be arranged into a high-density storage grid of almost any shape or size, up to a maximum of 80 feet tall. With this novel structure, it condenses storage as much as possible, as there are no fixed aisleways, meaning it can maximize both vertical and horizontal space.

The MytraBots replace human workers. The company describes them as “low-profile robots” that can move in X, Y and Z directions throughout the storage matrix. They move around, lifting cell trays, which can hold anything from small boxes to full-size pallets via an integral Z-axis lift mechanism.

Finally, there’s the secret sauce, which is Mytra’s warehouse execution system. The software leverages AI to control the MytraBots, optimizing their routes and avoiding traffic jams. It can dynamically reconfigure the shape of the matrix and the size of the cells to optimize them based on whatever items are being stored.

It’s capable of morphing between high-density or high-velocity configurations, based on whatever setup the customer prefers. When a warehouse operator requests a product to be retrieved from storage, the software directs the nearest available MytraBot to its location and moves it to the designated pick-up port at the periphery of the matrix, where human workers or autonomous trucks can access it.

According to Mytra, its system provides significant advantages for warehouse operations, enabling increased storage density so companies can store more goods in less floor space. It also claims greater efficiency and throughput, because of the way it eliminates walking time and manual labor. Also, the system is much safer, because there’s less need for humans to operate forklifts in high-traffic areas, reducing the risk of accidents.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Chris Walti said the best way to improve industrial material flow is by implementing a fundamental platform shift instead of incremental improvements. “We’re not building better warehouse robots; we’re rebuilding the infrastructure layer that every industrial process depends on,” he said. “Material flow should work like cloud computing: abstracted, programmable and continuously optimizing.”

Warehouse operators are buying into Walti’s logic, for the company is growing rapidly, with various Fortune 500 companies tapping it to improve their logistics operations. Last year, it signed a contract with one unnamed firm to create a large-scale storage matrix that’s 60 times larger than its current largest installation, while growing the size of its staff by 78%.

Avenir Growth led the Series C round, which saw participation from new investors including Kivu Ventures, Liquid 2, D.E. Shaw and Offline Ventures, as well as returning investors Eclipse, Greenoaks, Abstract Ventures and Promus Ventures.

The funds from today’s round will help Mytra to accelerate deployments of its automated storage and retrieval system and further expand its team.

Image: Mytra