Robot logistics startup Nexobot lands $400,000 pre-Seed raise

Robotics startup Nexobot has raised $400,000 in pre-Seed funding to deliver an affordable solution for order fulfilment in smaller warehouses.

The round was backed by Skalata and Antler, to help smaller retailers and others compete against the multi million-dollar robotic systems deployed by the likes of Amazon. 

Nexobot was founded in 2023 by Dom Lindsay and Nicholas Hunt to transform the warehouse and distribution sector with cost-effective robotic sorting solutions using 3D printing to create scalable ‘micro-fulfilment’.

Hunt said one customer has calculated that the system could reduce costs by $1,000 a day, doubling their margins. 

“Current automation solutions for parcel sorting are cost prohibitive, take months to deploy, require complex local networking, and tend not to be modular. Some demand 7-10 year contractual commitments,” he said. 

One of the problems smaller warehouses face, Hunt explained, is that they’re priced fulfilling large contracts from national providers like DHL, TNT, or FedEx, who requiring a 2-3 hour sorting window, and are completely 

“Nexobot is helping smaller, local warehouses increase their volume by 20-30%, while reducing costs of human labour, and inefficiencies created by human error,” he said. 

Nexobot’s robots are 3D printed in-house, and its sorting tables can be installed, retrofitted, modified, and scaled according to need. 

The software is simple for warehouse operators and the system can be deployed within 4-6 weeks. The establishment costs for smaller businesses are an installation fee, then on a per-robot, per-use basis. 

Ecommerce is now more than 20% of global retail sales, with an annual growth rate of around 9% this year.

Hunt takes a dig at the Agility Robotics’ solution for Amazon, the walking, talking “Digit”, worth $150 million to Amazon. B

“When we’re talking about moving boxes around, maybe we don’t need to reinvent the human,” he said.

“Nexobot wants to keep things simple, affordable, and efficient, so small businesses can scale through automation, and human workers can stop being treated like they’re made of steel.”