I spent final week in Boston, assembly with a number of of the world’s high automation startups. Delicate Robotics — based mostly in close by Bedford, Massachusetts — is a type of names that comes up rather a lot. Because the idea of soppy robotics grippers have more and more come into vogue, the corporate of the identical identify has been reaping a lot of that windfall.

Right this moment, as an illustration, it introduced a $26 million Collection C, led by Tyson Ventures. The VC arm of Tyson Meals is a pure match right here. In spite of everything, meals manufacturing has lengthy been a giant piece of Delicate Robotics’ technique. Its compliant grippers do a superb job choosing up fragile and inconsistently sized foodstuffs, from meat to supply — a longstanding problem for extra inflexible techniques.

“At Tyson, we’re regularly exploring new areas in automation that may improve security and improve the productiveness of our group members,” Tyson Ventures’ Rahul Ray stated in a launch. “Delicate Robotics’ revolutionary robotic know-how, laptop imaginative and prescient and AI platform have the potential to rework the meals business and can play a key function in any firm’s automation journey.”

Marel and Johnsonville additionally joined the spherical as new buyers, following a $23 million Collection B with a $10 million extension raised in June of final 12 months. On the time, Delicate Robotics cited pandemic-fueled job loss as a significant motivator within the funding spherical. Clearly the job state of affairs hasn’t gotten a lot better — significantly in industries like meat packing — whilst funding has largely slowed down throughout the board over the previous 12 months.

The agency says the brand new spherical of funding will go towards accelerating the deployment of its mGripAI system, which mixes 3D imaginative and prescient with a gentle gripping system. Delicate Robotics says the right storm of pandemic-fueled points has resulted in “the 4 largest gross sales quarters within the firm’s eight-year historical past.”