Destro, a robotics software startup, came out of stealth on Tuesday with an $8 million seed round. The company builds an AI layer that directs both robots and human workers in logistics settings.
Base10 Partners and Bonfire Ventures led the round. CoFound Partners also invested.
Unlike many new robotics firms, Destro does not build its own robots. It focuses on software that helps existing machines fit into warehouse work.
How Destro Works With Robots and People
Founder Manthan Pawar earned a master's degree in robotics at NYU Tandon. He has spent about eight years in the U.S. supply chain and robotics industry.
"One of the biggest reasons we are winning against robotics companies is because we are not a robotics company," Pawar told TechCrunch. He said the company is on track to be cash-flow positive by the end of this year.
Destro's main customer so far is Yusen Logistics. Richard Brunelle, director of automation for its American logistics group, oversees automation at about 30 U.S. facilities.
Yusen already uses conveyors and sorters. It is also testing trailer-unloading robots and autonomous floor scrubbers.
When Brunelle met Pawar, Destro was working on pick and pack, where goods are sorted into single packages. Brunelle saw a similar problem in cross-docking, where goods from one truck are sorted into mixed loads for other trucks.
He asked Destro to adapt its tool for that work. "They agreed nobody was addressing that space and that they could modify their tool to support it," Brunelle said.
Pilot Program at Yusen Logistics
Destro began with a pilot at one Yusen site in the Pacific Northwest. It used three cart-moving robots built by Miva Robotics.
The robots run on Destro's Vision system, which uses open-weight vision-language-action models. These AI models read camera images and instructions to control robot movement.
Workers unload goods into carts, and robots carry full carts to their destinations. Destro's Mothership system directs the workers, carts and trucks together.
"We make that operation less labor intensive, and we get away from the paper," Brunelle said.
Yusen also spoke with two other robot startups. One could move carts but could not manage loading or unloading, while the other required a person to handle all coordination.
Destro may face limits with tasks that need fine hand movements. Generic robots and open-source models have not yet proven capable at that kind of work.
Brunelle said he has not found a good use for two-legged humanoid robots. He is weighing a possible pilot with a wheeled humanoid.
Destro is now expanding its first pilot to a full deployment of 26 robots. It is also launching a second pilot with 17 robots at Yusen's Southern California facility, and Pawar plans to bring the workflow to thousands of other warehouses.
