Bossa Nova raises $17.5 million for retail robots that monitor inventory

Bossa Nova, a company that builds robots to track inventory on store shelves, announced today that it has raised a $17.5 million round of series B funding.

Paxion Capital Partners led the round, which included participation from Intel Capital, WRV Capital, Lucas Venture Group, and Cota Capital.

The company’s robots are designed to autonomously navigate a store and take stock of what’s on the shelves. In theory, this should automate a tedious and time-consuming task that was previously done by sending humans around to check on stock levels for each item.

The infusion of cash comes at a critical time in Bossa Nova’s history, as the company has already begun deploying its robots inside Walmart stores. Right now, the company is operating within 50 Walmart stores.

Martin Hitch, Bossa Nova’s chief business officer, said in an interview that the company plans to use the funds to bring on new talent in key teams, with a special focus on people who can help with the autonomous navigation systems for the robots, as well as boosting the AI capabilities used for scanning shelves.

This new funding builds on a $14 million round that Bossa Nova announced last year and brings the company’s total amount raised to $41.7 million.

Hitch said one of the key reasons for raising new capital is that the company wants to keep its lead in data and deployment of its technology.