6 River Systems, Inc. (6RS) announced today a new round of investor financing, led by Norwest Venture Partners with participation from existing investors. Matthew Howard, a managing partner at Norwest, has joined the company's board of directors alongside Greg Reichow, a partner at Eclipse and formerly VP of Operations at Tesla Motors.
The new investment will accelerate the delivery of the company's Robotic Collaborative Fulfillment System (CFS) and mobile robot, "Chuck." The solution uses a proprietary mobile robot and cloud-based enterprise software to improve warehouse staff productivity and simplify training. The company is experiencing strong demand for the CFS since announcing general availability earlier this year. Their systems are live at leading third party logistics provider and retailer warehouses in North America supporting direct to consumer, retail store replenishment, and service parts fulfillment operations.
"E-commerce is transforming how people shop, but the technology to fulfill these orders has not kept up. 6 River Systems has demonstrated impressive market traction, and their approach to mobile robotic automation is disruptive to incumbent players," stated Matthew Howard of Norwest Venture Partners. "The 6RS solution uses artificial intelligence to profile and assign work to robots and users. Their proprietary software minimizes walking and congestion while maximizing utilization and operator rates -- a new solution to a decades long challenge."
Greg Reichow, a Partner at Eclipse, added "6RS 'uniquely experienced team has delivered a productivity solution designed to improve efficiency by leveraging retailers' existing assets. This approach provides significant benefits to warehouses of all sizes, making automation accessible to thousands of warehouses that are using manual carts to fulfill orders."
First Automation System with a Mobile Robot Lead
The CFS is the world's first automation system to have a mobile robot lead an associate through a zone-based picking and replenishment workflow, maximizing associate rates while minimizing the investment. Because it does not require any new infrastructure, it can be fully operational at a customer site in weeks. By implementing advanced artificial intelligence, the CFS enhances WMS order processing functionality through a simplified systems integration approach. Customers are realizing a two to three times increase in associate productivity, driving an industry leading payback on investment of 12-18 months.
About 6 River Systems, Inc.
6 River Systems, Inc. is based in Greater Boston and was founded by Jerome Dubois, Rylan Hamilton, and Christopher Cacioppo. The 6RS mission is to redefine fulfillment automation for e-commerce and retail operations. Jerome Dubois and Rylan Hamilton are former executives of Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics). www.6river.com
About Norwest Venture Partners
Norwest is a leading Silicon Valley based venture capital and growth equity investment firm managing more than $6 billion in capital. Since our inception, we have invested in more than 600 companies. The firm invests in early to late stage companies across a wide range of sectors with a focus on consumer, enterprise, and healthcare. We offer a deep network of connections, operating experience, and a wide range of impactful services to help CEOs and founders advance on their journey. Norwest has offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco, with subsidiaries in India and Israel.
About Eclipse Ventures
Eclipse Ventures is redefining the way investments are made in hardware-focused companies. We see a world where hardware, robust software architecture, and compelling data insights are no longer three separate business models. Rather, they are the three pillars that define successful systems companies of the future