Destro AI raises $8 million to help warehouses coordinate robots and workers

In short: Destro AI says it can make warehouse robots more useful by coordinating both robots and human workers, and it has raised an $8 million seed round to scale up.

What happened

Destro AI, a startup that had been working quietly, announced it has raised $8 million in seed funding. The company says it is not trying to build new robots. Instead, it builds software that helps existing robots and the people around them work together.

Destro’s focus is logistics work inside warehouses, especially a process called cross-docking. Cross-docking is when goods are unloaded from one truck, sorted, and then loaded onto other trucks for final delivery.

At one Yusen Logistics facility in the US Pacific Northwest, Destro started a pilot using three cart-moving robots made by Miva Robotics. Destro’s software uses cameras and instructions to guide robot movement (like a warehouse “eyes and brain” that can follow directions). Destro also directs human workers, replacing paper-based steps with a more structured process.

Yusen’s automation director, Richard Brunelle, told TechCrunch that other robotics vendors could not fit into Yusen’s day-to-day workflow. Destro is now expanding to a 26-robot deployment and starting another pilot with 17 robots at Yusen’s Southern California facility.

The seed round was led by Base10 Partners and Bonfire Ventures, with additional investment from CoFound Partners.

Why it matters

Many warehouses already have some machines, but the hard part is getting people, robots, carts, and trucks to act like one team. Destro is betting that coordination software, not a new robot body, is what makes automation actually work in real facilities.

Source: TechCrunch AI