MIT alumnus cast is laser-focused on automating truck unloading
Pickle picks up $26M for its truck unloading robots
Fulfillment has arguably been the hottest robotics category over the past two years, as companies have looked to stay competitive with Amazon, even amid ongoing labor shortages. Still, one of the most important links in the chain remains one of the least addressed. Truck unloading isn’t a particularly easy problem to solve, but Pickle Robot Company is single-mindedly focused on it.
Warehouse jobs are tough enough to fill these days, but unloading pallets and trucks bring their own spate of issues, including repetitive heavy lifting and wildly fluctuating temperatures. Imagine stepping foot inside a shipping container that’s been sitting in direct sunlight all day. Traditional heavy equipment like forklifts also come with their own potentially dangerous and labour-intensive issues.
Founded in 2018, Pickle Robot tackled several warehouse challenges using industrial robots built on core AI software, computer vision, and advanced sensors. Today, the company is laser-focused on applying its technology to one of the most labor-intensive, physically demanding, and highest turnover work areas in logistics operations: truck unloading.
The company describes their offering thusly, “Pickle is founded by a cast of MIT alumni. We are teaching off-the-shelf robot arms how-to pick-up boxes and play Tetris.” The company notes that it has “unload[ed] tens-of-thousands of packages per month at customer sites,” primarily in Southern California. The work thus far has been part of a pilot with United Exchange Corporation, which has deployed the system in a distribution center.
United Exchange Corporation ("UEC") is an early customer using the Pickle Robot Unload System. UEC produces, sources, and distributes quality private label and licensed consumer goods and food items sold by retailers around the world. At UEC's Southern California distribution center, the Pickle Robot Unload System processes eligible floor-loaded ocean freight containers alongside UEC staff who use traditional manual processes to unload other trailers at the facility.
"Pickle robots really do unload trucks, or in our case ocean freight containers," said Tom Blaylock, Director of Operations at United Exchange Corporation. "Pickle has been a great partner to work with. We've seen their technology improve month-over-month handling our varied product types and package sizes, plus their team works closely with our staff on site to make sure the daily work gets done on time to quality standards."
Pickle announces a $26 million Series A raise led by Ranpak, JS Capital, Schusterman Family Investments, Soros Capital and Catapult Ventures.
Pickle will use the funding to accelerate go-to-market activities and strengthen deployment capabilities. Omar Asali, Chairman and CEO of Ranpak, has joined Pickle's Board of Directors as part of the investment deal. Following this Series A investment round, the company has raised a total of nearly $32 million to date. Previous investors that participated in this funding round included Toyota AI Ventures, Third Kind Venture Capital, Hyperplane Ventures, BoxGroup, and Version One Ventures.
"Unloading freight from trucks and containers is a difficult, sometimes dangerous, and always tedious task that is performed in thousands of locations every day," said Asali. "Operators around the globe are having difficulty filling positions to do this type of work, and Pickle is delivering a real robotic unload system that can help fill the labor gap plaguing the logistics industry."
To help accelerate the commercialization phase of the company, Pickle has expanded its leadership team to include Mike Donikian, Vice President of Product and Product Operations, and Pete Blair, Vice President of Marketing and Sales. Donikian brings a wealth of experience to Pickle from his previous roles launching and growing exceptional teams and products for Wayfair, Amazon Robotics, Amazon Pay, and Alexa. Blair brings go-to-market strategy and execution from his previous roles leading marketing at Berkshire Grey, Applause App Quality, and Kiva Systems/Amazon Robotics.
“Customer interest in Pickle unload systems has been incredibly strong, and now that we have our initial unload systems out of the lab and into customer operations we have a clear path to broad commercialization,” said founder and CEO AJ Meyer. “The early customer deployments, financing and leadership additions set the stage for us to accelerate customer acquisition and build the company infrastructure we need to deliver more systems to more customers in the coming months.”
That last bit is especially important. As you’re most likely aware, now is not a great time to be raising — even in a booming category like warehouse automation. But given the size and breadth of Pickle’s testing, putting funding off in hopes of better economic conditions isn’t necessarily an option when you’ve got product to deliver.
