Mujin Secures $85M Series C to Enable Further Robotics Innovation

Mujin Corp. today said it has successfully raised $85 million in Series C funding. The Tokyo-based company said it plans to use the capital to make its MujinController platform more available to integrators and end users to they can develop innovative automation applications.

MujinController works with any industrial robot, enabling users to develop and deploy them for manufacturing, logistics, and supply chain applications at a higher level of performance and reliability than before, said Mujin in a release.

“The MujinController introduces a unique approach to creating robotics applications, leveraging a real-time, non-volatile digital twin and offering a suite of perception, planning, and control algorithms to digitize the real world and autonomously move robots and other industrial equipment through it," said Dr. Ross Diankov, co-founder of Mujin. "We are excited to continue our journey toward perfecting the MujinController and getting it into everyone’s hands.”

Founded in 2011, Mujin said it develops machine intelligence for a common control platform for industrial and collaborative robots. The company, which has offices in Suwanee, Ga., and Guangzhou, China, said it can make pick-and-place and materials handling applications easier to deploy, more accurate, and less costly.

Mujin applications get traction

Mujin claimed that it "has solved palletizing and depalletizing for both single- and mixed-SKU orders, precise picking to streamline e-commerce order fulfillment, metal bin picking for parts in the automotive segment, unlocked truck trailer and container unloading, as well as quick deployment of robot cells."

Mujin’s said its platform allows users worldwide to automate tasks that were previously difficult to automate. The company added that it is committed to eliminating mundane and hazardous tasks so that employees can focus on more meaningful and fulfilling work.

Investors praise innovation

SBI Investment Co. led Mujin's Series C round, along with Pegasus Tech Ventures in Silicon Valley, 7 Industries in the Netherlands, corporate investor Accenture, and angel investor Dr. James Kuffner.

Kuffner was Diankov's advisor during his Ph.D. program at Carnegie Mellon University and is now CEO of Woven by Toyota.

"This Series C funding is a significant milestone for Mujin, a company that has pioneered intelligent automation technology since 2011," said Kuffner. "Mujin can accelerate and expand its delivery of truly state-of-the-art advanced industrial robotic solutions to customers globally, strengthening its position as the technology market leader.”

SBI Investment stated: “We are very proud to be working with Mujin, a company that represents Japanese high-end technology, and we will do everything we can to support the company so that it can become a world-class company.”

“Mujin has developed a platform technology that enables companies to develop and deploy automation solutions that were previously not possible,” said Anis Uzzaman, founder and CEO of Pegasus Tech Ventures. “As a result, Mujin has been able to race ahead of the competition and deliver results that others cannot. We look forward to helping Mujin accelerate their growth in the U.S. market.”

“Accenture has been collaborating with Mujin since 2019 on reinventing the logistics and manufacturing industries with AI and robotics," noted Atsushi Egawa, representative director and president of Accenture Japan Ltd. "Mujin is world-renowned for its robotics technology and an integral part of the transformation efforts in these industries globally. Together, we will continue to help our logistics and manufacturing clients drive value from hyper-automation and data-driven management.”

7-Industries added: “Mujin is the global leading cutting-edge robotics company, deploying autonomous robots for years, and we are looking forward to supporting Mujin in shaping the future of industrial automation.”