Robot Maker Burro Closes on $24 Million Series B

Burro, a maker of autonomous robots used in outdoor applications including agriculture and construction, has closed a $24 million Series B funding round co-led by Catalyst Investors and Translink Capital. Burro’s existing investors S2G Ventures, Toyota Ventures, F-Prime Capital, and Cibus Capital also participated in the round.

Burro’s computer-vision-based and fully autonomous collaborative robots (called a “Burro”) assist with harvesting, act as tow trailers, patrol yards, and serve as a platform for other technologies.

For example, on a berry farm, workers pick berries and place them in bins. They then pile the bins onto the Burro, which autonomously navigates across the farm to deliver the bins to the packing house. The Burro then goes back to the field and repeats the process. The result is higher daily production volume with a fixed number of people which delivers a clear return on investment.

To date, Burro’s robots have logged over 75,000 autonomous miles and more than 300,000 hours operating commercially. According to Burro, the global market for automating outdoor labor is $1.2 trillion. The Philadelphia-based company, led by CEO Charlie Anderson, was co-founded in November 2017.

“Robots have long been stuck in warehouses and factories, and few robotics companies have successfully scaled outdoors into industries like agriculture, nurseries, and construction, where trillions of dollars are spent annually on labor,” said Mr. Andersen. “We have built a world-class product based upon state-of-the-art autonomous AI technology, and with this funding, we will deliver solutions for real-world problems, distributed world-wide through our network of dealers.”

The new Series B funding will be used to expand the company’s commercial, product and engineering teams, to add more dealers, and for new product development. This year, Burro will launch Burro Grande, its first pallet-scale vehicle with a 1,500 pound payload capacity and 5,000 pound towing capacity. The new product features Burro’s latest autonomous software for navigating both indoor and outdoor environments.

“What sets Burro apart among the robotics sector is the team’s brilliant vision for augmenting – not replacing – labor with machines that work safely and reliably outdoors alongside humans, exponentially increasing efficiency and production,” said Brian Rich, a managing partner at Catalyst Investors.

“We are especially excited about how Burro has brought automation to the agriculture sector,” said Kaz Kikuchi, a partner at Translink Capital. “With their unique approach, Burros can work year-round, combatting the innate seasonality of work outdoors, by operating in a variety of crops and performing multiple tasks with one platform.”

Silicon Valley-headquartered Translink Capital focuses on early-stage investments primarily in United States and Asia-based technology companies. Sectors of specific interest include cloud computing, mobile, e-commerce, and digital media.

New York City-headquartered Catalyst Investors invests in growth capital and middle-market buyouts. Areas of specific interest include technology-enabled businesses in sectors such as healthcare, software, and business services.