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Top Warehouse Robotics Companies
Top warehouse robotics companies in the HardwareMap index, ranked by shipping evidence then disclosed raise: storage, picking, truck unloading, inventory.
by the HardwareMap editors3 min read
From the HardwareMap index, REV 26.09, refreshed 10 Oct 2026
Contents
The top warehouse robotics companies in the HardwareMap index number 12 as of REV 26.09. Ranking rule: shipping to paying customers first, named pilots second; inside each tier, disclosed capital raised breaks ties. Warehouses are the largest segment of industrial robotics companies, and this list breaks them out.
How we rank the top warehouse robotics companies
Warehouse buyers sign on payback, so the list ranks by evidence a buyer can check.
- Tier one, shipping. Robots running at a paying customer's site, or a disclosed purchase order.
- Tier two, named pilots. A named customer and site, announced by either party.
- Tier three, prototypes. None on this list.
"Raised" means disclosed rounds only. The index does not estimate undisclosed figures or valuations.
Storage and goods-to-person systems
These bring inventory to a person at a station instead of sending people down aisles.
Exotec (Wasquehal, France) builds Skypod, where robots climb the racks to fetch bins. It raised a $335 million Series D led by Goldman Sachs. GreyOrange (Suwanee, Georgia) pairs mobile robots with GreyMatter, software that orchestrates fulfillment for retailers and third-party logistics firms. Mytra (Brisbane, California) stores and retrieves full pallets in a modular steel grid, a load most automated storage avoids. Mytra says that in 2025 it went live in production at a customer site and signed a deployment 60 times the size of its largest prior installation (Mytra, 15 Jan 2026).
Mobile robots and inventory drones
Locus Robotics (Wilmington, Massachusetts) runs autonomous mobile robots that travel to pickers, coordinated by LocusONE and sold as a subscription. Its site counted more than 20,000 robots across more than 360 sites in October 2026 (Locus Robotics), the largest fleet figure any startup in the index publishes. Ati Robotics (Bengaluru) builds Sherpa robots that move materials inside factories and warehouses. Wheel.me (Oslo) sells an autonomous wheel that turns carts and racks into mobile robots, at a public starting price for a four-wheel set. Corvus Robotics (Mountain View) flies Corvus One drones that scan inventory, including in lights-out distribution centers; our drone companies list covers the wider drone field.
Truck unloading and manipulation
The dock is the hardest part of the warehouse to automate: mixed boxes, tight trailers, heavy lifts.
Dexterity (Redwood City) builds Mech, a mobile base with two industrial arms that loads and unloads trucks and palletizes boxes, lifting up to 60 kg combined. Pickle Robot (Boston) builds robots that unload trailers and containers. UPS plans to buy about 400 of them for roughly $120 million, with deployment from late 2026, according to Bloomberg as reported in December 2025 (Transport Topics, 15 Dec 2025).
Humanoids in the warehouse
Agility Robotics (Salem, Oregon) ranks first because it has the earliest paid humanoid deployment on record: Digit moves totes for GXO under a multi-year robots-as-a-service agreement signed in 2024 (Agility). In tier two, Apptronik (Austin) has announced agreements with GXO and Mercedes-Benz for its Apollo humanoid, and Collaborative Robotics (Santa Clara) builds Proxie, a wheeled mobile manipulator for moving carts and totes. The humanoid robots list ranks every humanoid maker by the same rule.
What warehouse operators check before signing
The companies at the top of this list share answers to the same five questions buyers ask.
- Does it fit the building I have? Mobile robots like Locus and Sherpa work in existing aisles. Storage grids like Skypod and Mytra need floor space, a design study and an installation period. The first is faster to start; the second changes density more.
- What is the payback period? Operators compare robot cost against labor, overtime, turnover and injury cost. Vendors who publish fleet size or throughput make that comparison easier; most publish neither.
- Who carries the risk? Under a subscription, the vendor owns the hardware and is paid for uptime. Under a purchase, the operator owns it and the maintenance problem.
- How does it scale through peak? Subscription fleets can add robots for the holiday season and return them after. Fixed systems are sized for peak and run below it the rest of the year.
- Will the vendor be here in five years? A disclosed raise, a named customer and a production history are the best public signals, which is why the ranking uses them.
For a founder building in this space, the same questions set the business model and the unit economics of each robot.
Many of these companies sell by subscription rather than outright; the robotics-as-a-service companies note covers that model. For robots that navigate on their own beyond the warehouse, see autonomous robotics companies.
Frequently asked questions
What are the top warehouse robotics companies?
By shipping evidence and disclosed capital, the leaders in the HardwareMap index are Agility Robotics, Exotec, GreyOrange, Locus Robotics and Dexterity, followed by Mytra, Pickle Robot, Ati Motors, Corvus Robotics and wheel.me. Incumbent warehouse automation is dominated by larger companies such as Amazon Robotics, AutoStore, Symbotic and Ocado, which a startup index does not list.
What kinds of robots work in warehouses?
Five main kinds: goods-to-person storage systems that bring bins or pallets to a worker, autonomous mobile robots that travel with pickers, robot arms that pick or palletize, truck loading and unloading robots, and inventory drones that scan shelves. Humanoids are a new sixth category, so far in pilots and early contracts. Most sites mix several kinds.
How much does warehouse automation cost?
It depends on the system. Storage grids and goods-to-person systems are capital projects sized per site, with prices quoted after a design study. Mobile robots are often sold as robots-as-a-service, priced per robot per month. Truck unloading robots are usually bought outright. Makers rarely publish prices, so request quotes and compare total cost over the contract term.
Are warehouse robots replacing workers?
Most deployments in this list work beside people. Locus robots travel to pickers, Exotec and Mytra bring goods to a person at a station, and unloading robots take over the heaviest dock work. Operators cite labor shortages, injury rates and turnover as reasons to automate. Headcount effects vary by site and are rarely published, so we do not estimate them.
HardwareMap tracks every warehouse robotics startup that ships. Open each datasheet above for hub, stage, raise and investors.
The index
All 219 startups, filterable by category, hub, stage and funding.