As Philadelphia’s small robotics presence continues to grow, one of its current inclusions — Burro — recently raised $24 million, writes Sarah Huffman for Technical.ly. 

Burro is a full-stack robotics platform that aims to solve the labor program facing farmers today by creating collaborative robots that work alongside humans to help them move produce and plants. 

With the new funding, the plan is to scale the business by selling its product through more dealers, launching new products, and hiring for Burro’s commercial, product, and engineering teams.

“[The goal] is expanding our engineering and product team, expanding our sales and go-to-market team and then investing in efficiency, so that as we grow, we’re not growing with unbounded cost increases at the same time,” said CEO Charlie Andersen.

The Callowhill-based company recently launched its new product, Burro Grande, which can carry 1,500 pounds and tow 5,000 pounds, compared to the original Burro, which can carry 500 pounds and tow 2,000 pounds.

“What sets Burro apart among the robotics sector is the team’s brilliant vision for augmenting — not replacing — labor with machines that work safely and reliably outdoors alongside humans, exponentially increasing efficiency and production,” said Brian Rich, managing partner at Catalyst Investors.

The outlook is all about growth.

Read more about Burro and its future in Technical.ly.

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