6 River Systems, Inc. (“6RS”) the world’s first and only collaborative fulfillment solution, today announced a $25M Series B round of financing. The round was led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from all existing investors including Norwest Venture Partners, Eclipse Ventures and iRobot. 6RS will use the investment to enhance the first collaborative fulfillment robot “Chuck,” support development of a decision-making engine for warehouses and add 80+ employees over the next 12 months.
The ongoing e-commerce evolution (and the disruption of retail markets) has changed the world of business. Consumers demand better service, but operators are stuck in the trenches and left fighting today’s problems with yesterday’s tools. 6RS knows that fulfillment is key to customer satisfaction. Starting with Chuck, which has already drastically increased warehouse productivity and reduced training costs, 6RS is building fulfillment solutions to power the winning warehouses of the future.
Leading Logistics Providers Deploying 6RS
6RS has successfully deployed its system at three of the top five third-party logistics providers and some of the largest retailers in the world. With 6RS, retailers and manufacturers are realizing 2-3X pick rates at half the cost of warehouse investments of the past. “Barrett Distribution Centers is a leader in the use of innovative technologies,” said Lewis Frazer, senior vice president at Barrett Distribution Centers. “6RS’ software and their collaborative robot Chuck has increased our productivity, reduced error rates by 50 percent and reduced training times to a matter of hours. The 6RS team has been a strong partner, scaling up to support our increased usage in the last year.”
“The hypergrowth in e-commerce and demand for near real-time delivery of goods has put enormous pressure on the logistics, operations and workforce of virtually every retailer. 6 River Systems’ smart, autonomous robot and next gen fulfillment system is the ideal solution to the problem,” said Matt Murphy, partner at Menlo Ventures. “The 6RS team’s background at Kiva Systems, the first generation of mobile robots for warehouses, has uniquely qualified them to innovate quickly, execute to the market needs, and build a leadership position in a massive market with a huge pain point.”
“The hardware and software systems that most warehouses use today were built for a world that is facing extinction,” said Jerome Dubois, 6 River Systems co-founder and co-CEO. “We live in an on-demand world and operations teams are struggling to keep up. A few leaders have adapted to this reality, but most need to modernize quickly for their business to survive. At 6RS, we are 100% focused on helping operators win.”
6RS also recently expanded its management team by hiring Naresh Wignarajah (formerly at Vistaprint), as Vice President of Engineering and Fergal Glynn (formerly at Docurated), as Vice President of Marketing.
In addition, 6RS was recently announced as a MHI Innovation Award finalist for the second year in a row. This prestigious material handling and supply chain award is judged by representatives from The Home Depot, Mohawk Industries, Champion Petfoods, Group Deschenes and 3M. The award winners will be announced at MODEX 2018 on April 11th.
For more information about 6RS, please visit https://6river.com/.
About 6 River Systems
E-commerce has changed the world. Customers demand better service but operators are stuck in the trenches, fighting today’s problems with yesterday’s tools. 6 River Systems knows that fulfillment is key to customer satisfaction. Starting with Chuck, a collaborative mobile robot, 6 River Systems is building fulfillment solutions that power the winning warehouses of the future.
Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, 6 River Systems is a venture-backed company founded by former Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics) executives. The team has decades of automation, software and operations experience and has designed, built and deployed the world’s largest warehouse automation solutions.
MEDIA CONTACT
Fergal Glynn
6 River Systems, Inc.
866-60-CHUCK
[email protected]
Twitter: @6riversystems