Covariant, a startup developing warehouse robots that can be deployed faster than traditional automation hardware, has raised an additional $75 million in Series C funding, bringing its total raise to $222 million. The round adds on to an $80 million Series C raise in July 2021.

The round was co-led by Radical Ventures and Index Ventures with additional funding from returning investors Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Amplify Partners. The round also included new investors Gates Frontier Holdings, AIX Ventures and Northgate Capital.

According to Emeryville, CA-based Covariant, the backing comes as retail executives want to invest in AI-powered robotic automation. With its new funding, Covariant said it will help retailers and their logistics providers deploy robotic picking quickly and without disruption to their current operations.

“Many companies are trying to break into the AI Robotics space, but Covariant has been making significant progress for years now,” noted Mike Volpi, Partner at Index Ventures.

Founded in 2017 and led by Peter Chen, Covariant uses its AI platform, the Covariant Brain, and applies it to a broad set of piece-picking and case-picking applications that represent today’s manual warehouse operations.