Outrider Inc., which turns risky distribution yards into automated, nearly touchless operations, has raised $73 million in a Series C funding round.
It plans to use the funds to complete final capabilities and safety mechanisms. It also plans to grow from its 175 employees by hiring more engineers locally and in Europe. Golden, Colo.-based Outrider also plans to expand sales of its software package to customers. They represent more than 20% of the 50,000-yard trucks operating in North America.
“Outrider continues to focus on automating this important link in the supply chain between road trucking and what happens inside the warehouse,” CEO and founder Andrew Smith told FreightWaves. “This tour continues to put us two to three years ahead of anyone following us.”
One of these potential competitors, Vernride, based in Munich, Germany, is piloting a project to highly automate and
Electric container logistics at HHLA TK terminal in Tallinn, Estonia. The next HHLA unit is investing an undisclosed amount in the project.
Outrider claims many Fortune 200 customers
Founded in 2017, Outrider has several clients among the Fortune 200. Nondisclosure agreements prohibit naming them publicly, but paper products manufacturer Georgia-Pacific was identified by Outrider as an early client.
The latest funding round is Outrider’s first since its Series B in 2020. It brings the total capital raised to $191 million. FM Capital led the Series C round and Managing Partner Mark Norman will join Outrider’s board of directors.
Over the past 18 months, Outrider has pioneered autonomous yard trucks that hitch and unhook millions of used trailers, developed driverless articulated support for those trailers and used a robotic arm to connect and disconnect air lines from trailers.
The Outrider system interacts with trucks, delivery and service vehicles. It integrates with supply chain management systems while tracking where trailers are in the yard. The technologies are bundled into a suite of Outrider software that goes on sale in July.
“Outrider has addressed all the elements – technology, safety, operations and support – needed to deploy a trusted industrial system at scale,” Norman said in a press release.
Standalone yard trucks aren’t enough for Outrider
Trucking moves more than 20 billion tons of freight each year. Almost all of this passes through distribution yards, which are difficult to staff and create bottlenecks in the supply chain. Repetitive manual tasks are often performed in potentially dangerous conditions.
“Freight is moving 24/7. With COVID and beyond, the explosion of e-commerce has increased truck labor challenges in the yard,” Norman told FreightWaves. “Low-speed operations are just a great application for automation and autonomy.”
This requires more than just self-driving trucks, which Outrider gets from Orange EV.
“There are a number of separate technologies and secret teams of people that have to be in place to put this integrated system together,” Smith said. Remotely controlled vehicles are not the answer.
“We calculated that our system is about 50 times more cost effective than paying someone to sit there and try to drive the car remotely,” Smith said. “This is full L-4 (Level 4) autonomy.”
Cost savings compared to traditional yard operations are close to 40%, and that doesn’t include the benefits of sustainability, safety and productivity, Smith said.
Investors like Outrider’s prospects
“The company represents a case study for bringing advanced robotics and autonomous technology to the market,” Norman said. “This integrated solution is ready for use during peak times. This was compelling for us and our investors to lead this round.
“The exciting thing is Outrider’s ability to make money and create value the old-fashioned way, through cash flow,” he said. “This is attractive for a lot of players in the future, whether they are financial, a large logistics company or a stand-alone independent company.”
In addition to FM Capital, participants in the C round included new investors, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority; Nvidia’s venture capital group, NVitures; B37 projects; Lineage Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Lineage Logistics; Presidio Ventures, the venture capital arm of Sumitomo; Robo Global Enterprises. Existing investors participating include Koch Disruptive Technologies and New Enterprise Associates.
Related articles:
Outrider is putting the (robotic) arm into autonomous yard trucks
Outrider expands independent distribution yard business to support trailers
CEO: “Future Square” is self-driving and electric
Click for more FreightWaves articles by Alan Adler.
