The most basic task in a warehouse is moving and storing materials. It’s a surprisingly complicated logistical puzzle that requires a crowd of skilled workers who employ forklifts, conveyors, and elevators, among other semi-manual tools. What if the whole process (or at least a big percentage of it) could be automated, however? That would revolutionize warehousing, and in turn, a vital organ of the global logistics pipeline. Today, over 90% of warehouses currently have “no meaningful automation,” according to Chris Walti, founder and CEO of Mytra, a company with an AI robot capable of changing that.

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In under two years, Mytra went from a pitch deck to fully operational in the second largest supermarket chain in North America. #startup #... See more

Mytra recently unveiled its AI robot capable of moving 3,000-pound pallets in three dimensions. That’s a pretty shocking achievement as only two years ago, Mytra’s founder Chris Walti was working at Tesla and Mytra was just an idea in his head.

At Tesla Chris led the Optimus program, in which his team created and engineered a humanoid robot. He’d worked for Tesla for seven years and was ready to move on to something more “actually achievable” compared to some of the unrealistic expectations placed on his Optimus team. At Tesla, “you’re always given eight responsibilities, and everything is a priority one,” Chris told us during our interview.

So Chris left Tesla. He got out a notebook and wrote down six ideas for products or companies that had been on his mind. Four of them were “absolutely terrible,” one was “the next company we’ll do ten years in the future,” and the other was Mytra. The “idea” Chris had for Mytra was a doodle he’d drawn—a box with six arrows around it, all pointing away from the box “forward, backward, left to right, top down.” He showed the notebook to Seth Winterroth, partner at ⁠Eclipse⁠, who loved the idea and told Chris that Eclipse would like to be part of funding it if Chris were the founder. And thus Mytra was born.

Now only two years later, bolstered by $78 million in funding, the company has created fully operational AI robots reliable enough to meet service level agreements with retailers like Albertsons, where Mytra bots have been working for three months, 24/7, around-the-clock.

We spent an hour in Mytra’s facility filming their AI robot and sitting down with Chris and Seth. If you’re curious about how the bot works, or you want to learn more about the journey of Mytra, watch the episode below 👇️ 

Watch the full Mytra episode on:

ICYMI:

Some of our favorite clips from recent podcast episodes.

WHO GOT PAID?:

- Zip, a San Francisco-based AI-powered procurement orchestration platform, raised $190 million in Series D funding led by BOND. Adams Street, CRV, Y Combinator, and others joined the round.

- Carbon Robotics, a Seattle-based farming technology company, raised $70 million in Series D funding led by BOND.

- Bluesky, a Seattle-based social media app, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Blockchain Capital led the round and was joined by Alumni Ventures and others.

- Waymo, a Mountain View, Calif.-based self-driving vehicle company, raised $5.6 billion in Series C funding. Alphabet led the round and was joined by a16z.

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