Source: Toggle, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Toggle, a startup using robotics and automation to optimize the fabrication and assembly of rebar, has raised $3 million in seed-funding to expand its team and further develop its robotics technology at its Brooklyn facility. Toggle’s goal is to double labor productivity and to increase overall production five times over traditional assembly methods for its customers in the construction industry.
“Global urbanization is driving demand for ever larger and more complex urban high rise and civil infrastructure construction. At Toggle, we believe that part of the solution to delivering these projects will be through leveraging robotics and automation to multiply the productivity of labor,” says Toggle CEO Daniel Blank. “We are extremely grateful for the incredible support we’ve had from our investors in helping to realize our vision of bringing large scale urban and infrastructure construction to communities at the same level of quality, speed and value as manufactured consumer goods.”
Point72 Ventures’ AI Group led the round of financing, and is joined by Shark Tank personality Mark Cuban and early-stage global VC Twenty Seven Ventures. “We are impressed by Toggle’s innovative approach to using robotics and model-driven automation to modernize a critical element of the construction process,” affirms Sri Chandrasekar, Point72 Ventures partner. “Toggle’s approach has the potential to dramatically reduce rebar manufacturing costs, increase production facility capacity, and bring more precision and reliability to a fabrication process that is still largely reliant on manual labor. We are pleased to support the company’s future growth and innovation.”
Toggle has developed new hardware, software and services that work in conjunction with industrial robots and other steel fabrication equipment to increase safety, productivity and precision in the rebar fabrication assembly process. The patent-pending technology allows the company to deliver steel reinforcing products by truck at a lower cost and faster speed to customers in New York City and the surrounding region.
“At Toggle, we’ve been fortunate to build a team that brings together deep experience and expertise from manufacturing, robotics and construction,” adds Toggle COO Ian Cohen. “We are also already working with an exclusive early adopter group of customers across renewable energy, civil infrastructure and residential construction.” The company anticipates to work toward commercial production over the next year and a half.
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