Slip Robotics, an Atlanta-based startup, has raised $28 million in a Series B funding round led by DCVC, a deep tech venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. The company, which has now raised a total of $45 million, plans to use the new funds to expand its team and enhance its product offerings. Founded in 2020 by former engineers Chris Smith, Dennis Siedlak, and John Jakomin, Slip Robotics has developed SlipBots, robotic platforms that can load and unload truck trailers in just five minutes.
This is a significant improvement over the traditional process, which can take up to an hour and leaves truck drivers idling for 23% of their workday. The SlipBots are designed to handle uneven ground and navigate routes from the warehouse floor into a truck trailer. They can hold 10 palettes and carry up to 12,000 pounds, with three SlipBots fitting into one truck trailer.
Once the truck reaches its destination, the SlipBots disembark. Slip Robotics offers its services on a subscription basis, with customers paying a license fee that includes ongoing software updates, hardware service, maintenance, and repairs.
Funding boost expands Slip Robotics’ team
The company’s customers include major brands such as John Deere, GE Appliances, Valeo, and Nissan. Jordan Sanders, Chief Commercial Officer at Slip Robotics, said that the company’s success is due to its product and its approach to scaling. “People have come to expect a lot of hype and ‘smoke and mirrors’ from robotics companies about their actual state of technology development and actual commercial scale,” he noted.
“This expectation and implicit skepticism is unfortunate, but it is entirely justified based on the hype and failed promises over the last decade.”
Slip Robotics has focused on developing its robotics platform and has grown from less than a dozen employees to about 50. The company now has 10 commercial customers and hundreds of bots in the field. James Hardiman, General Partner at DCVC, believes that Slip Robotics is driving significant change in the supply chain industry.
“Slip Robotics is driving a level of change in the supply chain industry not seen since the containerization of sea freight,” he said in a press statement. “Their solutions are not just theoretical—they work, and they deliver value and scale today.”
The Series B funding round also saw participation from existing investors Eve Atlas, Tech Square Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Overline, and Pathbreaker Ventures. With this new investment, Slip Robotics aims to continue its growth and deliver greater value to its customers in the transportation and supply chain industries.
