Robotics company Ati Motors has raised $20 million (over Rs 170 crore) in a Series B round of investment led by Walden Catalyst Ventures and NGP Capital, as the company aims for a global expansion of its AI-driven autonomous robots.
The startup's existing investors including Silicon Valley-based True Ventures, Exfinity Venture Partners, Athera Venture Partners and Blume Ventures also doubled down on their bets in the round. They had invested about $10.9 million in a Series A round of funding in 2023, which was led by True Ventures and saw participation from MFV Partners as well.
The Bengaluru-based startup, founded in 2017, builds autonomous moving robots or AMRs, similar to a self-driving car, that operate in an industrial setup. It makes tugs, bin movers, pallet movers, and lifting platforms for manufacturing facilities.
Ati said the order book for its robots has tripled in size in the fourth quarter of 2024. It has also managed to bring on board nine new clients for its product line and has deployed hundreds of its Sherpa robots across 40 manufacturers including auto components maker Forvia and Hyundai with multiple scaled deployments in North America
The firm said the capital raised will be used towards development and deployment of its robotic workforce, which is based on a very large and diverse factory datasets for autonomous movement.
Saurabh Chandra, founder and CEO of Ati Motors, told VCCircle that besides doubling down on its expansion in North America and the Asia-Pacific region, the company also plans to invest on its AI database, built using data sets from robot movements in industrial setting, in over 50 factories globally.
"We have already great traction in North America and APAC and we want to make sure that we are able to go deep into these markets," Chandra said.
Commenting on its growing order book, Chandra acknowledged that besides sales and marketing efforts and acquisition of new customers, macro factors also worked in the company's favour. “I wouldn't say we did all the hard work,” he said.
