Robots for rent: warehouse start-up Ultra raises 50 million dollars

Brooklyn robotics start-up Ultra has raised 50 million dollars in a Series A round led by Framework Ventures, with Y Combinator also taking part. Together with an earlier 12-million-dollar seed round, Ultra has now raised 62 million dollars, business magazine Fortune reported on 9 October.

Ultra rents out its robots as a service: customers pay a one-off integration fee and then a monthly charge for hardware and software. The stationary OP1 robot ("Operator") has two arms, sits on locking casters, needs a 5-by-5-foot footprint and runs off a standard outlet. It packs, sorts and kits goods; each arm carries up to 10 pounds. According to the company, the robots have already prepared more than half a million orders for shipping. Ultra does not disclose its revenue.

The AI models come from start-up Physical Intelligence, valued at 5.6 billion dollars according to Fortune: Ultra builds the "body", Physical Intelligence the "brain" that adapts to each customer's processes. Ultra CEO Jon Miller Schwartz believes non-humanoid robots currently have the edge; by his estimate, humanoid robots will reach similar scale in about five years.