6 River Systems, Inc. (6RS), Boston, Mass., announced a $25 million Series B round of financing. The round was led by Menlo Ventures, Menlo Park, Calif., with participation from all existing investors, including Norwest Venture Partners, Palo Alto, Calif.; Eclipse Ventures, Palo Alto, Calif.; and iRobot Corp., Bedford, Mass. 6RS will use the investment to enhance Chuck, what is dubbed as the first collaborative fulfillment robot, support development of a decision-making engine for warehouses and add 80-plus employees over the next 12 months.

6RS has deployed its system at a number of third-party logistics providers and retailers.

“The hyper-growth in e-commerce and demand for near real-time delivery of goods has put enormous pressure on the logistics, operations and workforce of virtually every retailer. 6 River Systems’ smart, autonomous robot and next-gen fulfillment system is the ideal solution to the problem,” says Matt Murphy, partner at Menlo Ventures. “The 6RS team’s background at Kiva Systems, the first generation of mobile robots for warehouses, has uniquely qualified them to innovate quickly, execute to the market needs and build a leadership position in a massive market with a huge pain point.”

“The hardware and software systems that most warehouses use today were built for a world that is facing extinction,” said Jerome Dubois, 6 River Systems co-founder and co-CEO. “We live in an on-demand world, and operations teams are struggling to keep up. A few leaders have adapted to this reality, but most need to modernize quickly for their business to survive. At 6RS, we are 100% focused on helping operators win.”

6RS also hired Naresh Wignarajah as vice president of engineering and Fergal Glynn as vice president of marketing. Wignarajah previously worked at Vistaprint, and Glynn previously worked at Docurated.