How Warp is introducing robots to automate its network of warehouses

Warp was founded in 2021 to help companies streamline their shipping supply chains and reduce costs through its tech-enabled network of shippers, carriers and warehouses.

Now, it wants to make supply chains further efficient by using robots to automate its web of warehouses.

Daniel Sokolovsky, the co-founder and CEO of Warp, told TechCrunch that Warp is always looking for ways to make shipping more efficient for its customers, which include enterprises like Walmart, Gopuff, and HelloFresh. With the advancements in AI, the company thought there could be more opportunities to automate.

Warp can’t automate the long-haul trucking or short-range delivery aspects of the supply chain, Sokolovsky said, so it’s working on what it can potentially change: the workflows inside its warehouses.

Warp started by installing cameras into its test warehouse in Los Angeles and used computer vision to turn that data into a virtual warehouse to start experimenting.

“We effectively made a digital twin, or simulation environment for our LA facility,” Sokolovsky said. “[We] basically started just like throwing stuff at the wall. Honestly, a lot of it was, what happens if we do this? What happens if we do that? What happens if we do that other thing?”

One of their first ideas was to train humanoid robots to use traditional pallet jacks, which did not work. Then Warp started to find success using off-the-self robots with some additional tech retrofitted on.

“We’ve taken really, really complicated logistics problems, divided them into a lot of easily digestible, system understood and system-fed components,” Sokolovsky said. “We are now using, whether it’s AI in the form of voice, text, email, phone calls or robotics, [to make sure] that we’re unloading, storing and reloading freight. We actually think that we can actually continue this on, and really get to our goals as quickly as possible, without hiring more people.”

Troy Lester, Warp co-founder and CRO, said that these robots will help give Warp’s underlying warehouse partners — other than its Los Angeles test facility, the company doesn’t outright own the warehouses in its network — an edge, also helping to reduce labor costs.

“They’re complaining to us about staffing issues all the time,” Lester said. “The labor that’s doing the work in these facilities, they’re not liking it either. So I think there is an opportunity to kind of empower those businesses to have these robotic kits that would not only help make our network better, but help make their business with other companies better as well.”

Warp raised a $10 million Series A round to help with this latest development. The round was co-led by Up.Partners and Blue Bear Capital.

Warp is testing several different versions of the robots and ambitiously claims it will start deploying this year.

Sokolovsky said Warp’s Los Angeles test facility is totally autonomous, and the company plans to start deploying these robots to warehouses in its core networks — Los Angeles, Chicago, New Jersey, Dallas, and Miami — first. Warp doesn’t plan on selling the tech outside of its hub — at least for now — because it gives Warp, and its underlying warehouse partners, a competitive advantage.

“Instead of going out and saying, hey, we’re just a robot company, AI company, and spend money on like this potential concept, it’s like, no, we’re actually a logistics company that has been really impacting and servicing our customers,” Sokolovsky said. “For the past few years now, we’ve developed an amazing system and an ecosystem that’s allowing us to deploy these kinds of automations.”