As Industrial Automation Market Explodes, Third Wave Automation Closes $40M Series B
UNION CITY, Calif., Aug. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Third Wave Automation, Inc. ("Third Wave") today announced the closing of its Series B financing, a $40M round led by Norwest Venture Partners including participation from prior investors Innovation Endeavors and Eclipse, along with Toyota Ventures. The additional funds will accelerate growth and commercialization efforts. As a part of today's announcement, Matt Howard, General Partner at Norwest Venture Partners, will join Third Wave's board of directors.
"I've been tracking Arshan and the team at Third Wave for some time and have been consistently impressed," said Howard. "When I last visited the Third Wave facility and saw its forklifts easily completing picks and places my jaw dropped, and I knew Norwest needed to be a part of this journey. We are thrilled to support the Third Wave team as they fundamentally alter the warehouse and material handling industry."
"While we weren't actively raising, having the opportunity to bring Norwest and Matt's expertise into our orbit was too good to pass up," said Arshan Poursohi, CEO of Third Wave. "This extra capital will allow us to accelerate hiring and speed our path to the commercial market following our recent successful technical trials. We are now in active conversations with the top 20 3PL's and retailers in the industry. There is a real need for our technology and we are eager to meet that need."
Third Wave's unique approach to industrial automation was conceived with artificial intelligence and computer vision at its core. Following years of research and development, Third Wave recently signed a commercial agreement and strategic partnership with industrial powerhouse Toyota Industries Corporation, Inc. With this additional funding, Third Wave is set to define the industry's agenda for the next generation.
Industrial Solution for a Growing $100 Billion Market
Third Wave's first focus is on the forklift, the workhorse of the global supply chain. The industry is over $100 billion globally. A forecasted 9% CAGR from 2021 to 2027 will result in shipments of over 2 million units annually by 2027. Because of the complex and dynamic tasks required of forklifts, innovation in the category has lagged. But, this customer base is hungry for technology advancements that will improve safety and efficiency, yielding a tremendous opportunity for Third Wave.
Third Wave's solution is unique among its peers, leveraging a proprietary mix of adaptive automation, shared autonomy and continuous learning. The end result is a system that is highly flexible, quickly deployable, capable of constant improvement, and delivers a rapid return on customer investment. Third Wave's system renders improvements in safety, efficiency and throughput while delivering unparalleled functionality, such as high rack pick-and-place.
Investor Validation
"Third Wave's machine learning first approach to industrial automation has enabled them to develop a solution that has previously been unavailable to the global supply chain," said Seth Winterroth, who led Third Wave's seed funding for Eclipse. "Since our initial investment in 2018, the team has executed tirelessly to build a product that arms their customers with the operational efficiency and resiliency needed in today's heavily burdened supply chains. With this funding, Third Wave is poised to become the most significant industrial automation company of the modern era."
"Third Wave uses next-gen robotics to solve decades-old challenges with warehousing, which drives huge improvements to both worker safety and productivity," said Scott Brady, partner at Innovation Endeavors. "Solving these problems helps build resilience against issues that arise in logistics and across the supply chain. We congratulate the Third Wave team on their continued growth and are excited to support them as they roll out even more of these advanced robotics solutions."
About Third Wave
Third Wave Automation was founded in 2018 in Union City, Calif. as a producer of advanced autonomous industrial solutions. Third Wave's technology is at the forefront of autonomous material handling, with improved efficiency and throughput by leveraging shared autonomy - a breakthrough in machine learning, computer vision, and robotics. Third Wave is backed by $59 million in venture capital from leading investors including Norwest Venture Partners, Eclipse Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Heartland Ventures, Homebrew, and Toyota Ventures, and counts Toyota Industries Corporation as a strategic partner. To learn more about how Third Wave Automation is driving next generation industrial automation solutions using Shared Autonomy, please explore www.thirdwave.ai.
About Norwest Venture Partners
Norwest is a leading venture and growth equity investment firm managing more than $9.5 billion in capital. Since our inception, we have invested in more than 600 companies and currently partner with over 160 companies in our venture and growth equity portfolio. The firm invests in early to late stage businesses across a wide range of sectors with a focus on consumer, enterprise, and healthcare. We offer a deep network of connections, operating experience, and a wide range of impactful services to help CEOs and founders scale their businesses. Norwest has offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco, with subsidiaries in India and Israel. For more information, please visit www.nvp.com. Follow Norwest on Twitter @NorwestVP.
About Eclipse Ventures
Eclipse Ventures is a technology-focused venture capital firm specializing in complex, industrial operations and full-stack solutions. Founded in 2015 and based in Palo Alto, CA, Eclipse partners with entrepreneurs boldly transforming the essential industries that define and propel economies.
About Innovation Endeavors
Innovation Endeavors is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in visionary founders, transformational technologies and emergent ecosystems. The firm's central investment thesis, the Super Evolution, combines data, leading-edge computation, and advanced engineering to transform industries, from agriculture and logistics to life sciences, transportation and more. Its investments include: Eikon Therapeutics, Fabric, Freenome, Planet, Plenty, Replica, SoFi, Uber, Zymergen, and more. For more information, visit www.InnovationEndeavors.com
SOURCE Third Wave
Share this article