Warehouse automation firm Hai Robotics closes $100M series D funding round

Less than a year after raising $200 million, Chinese warehouse automation firm Hai Robotics has announced a $100 million series D+ funding round.

The funding is the third round raised in the past year as the acceleration of warehouse robotics intensifies across the globe. Hai has now raised $315 million, according to Crunchbase, across six total rounds.

As in previous rounds, Hai did not release a valuation associated with the new round.

“This round of financing will be spent on stepping up the R&D of warehousing logistics robotic systems and on global business expansion, to provide more efficient, intelligent and flexible products to power every warehouse with robots to address labor shortages and cope with the challenges brought by the aging population,” said Richie Chen, the company’s founder and CEO.

The latest round was led by Capital Today and an undisclosed U.S. fund. Existing shareholders 5Y Capital, Source Code Capital, Sequoia Capital and 01VC also participated.

The Shenzhen, China-based company specializes in autonomous case-handling robotic systems (ACR), launching its first such system, the Haipick, in 2015. The Haipick uses ACR to store and retrieve up to eight cases at a time in tall, narrow storage aisles. By condensing aisles, the Hai system is able to increase storage density between 80% and 130% while improving warehouse efficiency by as much as four times, the company said.

Once cases are retrieved, the robots work in a goods-to-person framework, moving inventory into position to fuel order fulfillment and other logistics processes.

Hai said that its solutions lead to an increase in productivity of between three and four times for warehouse operators and increase storage capacity as much as 230% as compared to manually operated warehouses. The company has been running over 200 projects around the globe with more than 2,000 ACR robots deployed, accounting for 90% share in the ACR robot market, it said.

Warehouse automation saw 50% growth in venture capital investment in 2020, and the global warehouse robotics sector is expected to reach $6.8 billion by 2025. Despite the increasing pressure for speed and accuracy that e-commerce has generated, 80% of warehouses are still manually operated with no supporting automation, according to DHL.

According to Hai, it now has more than 500 ongoing projects in more than 30 countries with offices in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In September 2021, Hai Robotics announced $200 million in funding through two continuous rounds of funding. A series C round of funding was led by 5Y Capital with participation from Sequoia Capital China, Source Code Capital, VMS, Walden International and Scheme Capital. A series D round of funding was led by Capital Today, with existing investors including Sequoia Capital China, 5Y Capital, Source Code Capital, Legend Star and 01VC. In March 2021, 5Y Capital led a $15 million Series B+ round in Hai along with participation from existing investors Source Code Capital and Walden International.

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Source: freightwaves - Warehouse automation firm Hai Robotics closes $100M series D funding round
Editor: Brian Straight