In the era of Amazon.com Inc. and same-day delivery, traditional retailers must adopt new technologies to provide the level of service that shoppers have come to expect.

This competitive necessity is creating new opportunities for players such as robotics startup 6 River Systems Inc., which today announced that it has closed a $25 million Series B funding round led by Menlo Ventures. The venture capital firm was joined by Norwest Venture Partners, Eclipse Ventures and iRobot Corp., the company behind the Roomba.

Founded in 2015, 6 River Systems has developed a “collaborative” robot called Chuck that can assist fulfillment center workers by physically carrying the goods they’re tasked with moving around. The machine (pictured) stands 49 inches tall and can transport up to 160 pounds worth of goods on a single run, with the ability to operate for two shifts per battery charge.

According to 6 River Systems, its robot is particularly adept at so-called order picking. This is the task of collecting the items needed for an order ahead of shipment and constitutes one of the most labor-intensive chores at the typical fulfillment center. The startup said Chuck can improve cart pick rates by two to three times for half the cost of alternative hardware.

The robot also lends itself to other warehouse activities, including taking newly unloaded goods to the appropriate rack and counting merchandise. A display attached to the top of the system shows information about the task to the accompanying worker to streamline the process.

The onscreen instructions also help reduce training requirements, to the point that 6 River Systems said it can take as little as a few hours to teach an employee how to interact with Chuck. Moreover, warehouse operators don’t need to install any special infrastructure in their facilities to accommodate the robot. According to 6 River Systems, this makes it possible to deploy the system in a matter of weeks.

The startup claimed that its robot has been adopted by three of the top five third-party logistics providers and “some of the largest retailers in the world.” The new funding will be used to add more features, plus hire an additional 80-plus employees over the next 12 months.

Image: 6 River Systems