Ambi Robotics and Pitney Bowes sign $23 million expansion

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Ambi’s AmbiSort is able to sort packages of all different sizes 50% quicker than manual sorters. | Source: Ambi Robotics

Ambi Robotics, the creator of the AmbiSort robotic sorting solution, and Pitney Bowes, a global shipping and mailing company, signed a $23 million expansion deal. Pitney Bowes will make the investment over the next four years in Robot as a Service (RaaS) fees. 

Pitney Bowes opted for the expansion after using Ambi’s robots in its Stockton, California ecommerce hub. There, AmbiSort systems were able to keep up with the 2021 peak holiday season and nearly doubled the throughput for parcel sortation to local direct delivery hubs. 

Before implementing AmbiSort, Pitney Bowes employees would pick, place and place items with a manual putwall. Now, one operator can oversee up to four automated putwalls. This allows the worker to oversee the organization of up to four times as many packages.  

An Ambi sorting robot in a Pitney Bowes facility. One worker can oversee up to four robots at a time. | Source: Ambi Robotics

“As we continue to scale our global ecommerce business, Pitney Bowes is working with some of the most innovative companies in the industry to configure new solutions that improve our service offerings and make B2C ecommerce logistics easier for our clients,” Gregg Zegras, EVP and president of global ecommerce at Pitney Bowes, said. “The deployment of AmbiSort AI-powered systems is part of our long-term plan to further enhance our technologically efficient, employee and client-friendly ecommerce logistics network.”

AmbiSort is powered by AmbiOS, an artificial intelligence operating system. AmbiSort is able to begin operating and sorting any item during its first day on the job, making it easier to scale quickly. 

“Every decision we make at Ambi Robotics centers around the value we bring to our customers and how to uplift their employees,” Jim Liefer, CEO of Ambi Robotics, said. “Our partnership with Pitney Bowes is symbiotic – the company courageously embraces innovation and technology. There is a reason Pitney Bowes is a 100-year strong company.”

Ambi Robotics won an RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award in 2021 for AmbiSort and AmbiKit. Stephanie Cannon of Pitney Bowes was recently on The Robot Report Podcast, where she discussed deploying Ambi’s sorting system.