$62 million in two rounds: a $50 million Series A led by Framework Ventures, and an earlier $12 million seed led by Y Combinator and NextView. Ultra, a Brooklyn startup that leases robots to warehouses, disclosed both on Friday, Fortune reported.
The robots pack goods for shipping. They are not humanoid, and they are not sold. Customers pay an upfront fee for installation, then a monthly fee that covers hardware and software support.
Ultra says its machines have packed more than half a million orders at sites across the US. Its customers are third-party logistics firms, the contractors that run fulfilment for other companies.
The second announcement was a deeper partnership with Physical Intelligence, the robotics AI company valued at $5.6 billion. Ultra builds and installs the bodies. Physical Intelligence supplies the model that lets them adapt to each customer’s set-up, and gets data from working warehouses in return. Terms were not disclosed.
Renting changes who carries the risk. A warehouse operator does not have to commit capital to a machine before knowing whether it works on its floor. The robot maker carries the hardware instead, and that takes funding.
Chief executive Jon Miller Schwartz told Fortune the model has enough traction that Ultra has been able to raise its prices. He also said humanoid robots working at scale are about five years away.
The traction is asserted more than shown. Schwartz described revenue as significant without giving a figure. There is no valuation, no customer count, no number of robots deployed, and no word on how often a human has to step in. Half a million orders is the company’s own tally, and it is the only hard number on the operating side.
