This story was reported with support from Pennsylvania Gets It Done and the BusinessPA team at the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. Their work connecting businesses to financial resources, strategic partnerships and tailored guidance aims to build a stronger, more successful Pennsylvania economy.
Startup profile: Burro
- Founded by: Charlie Andersen, Vibhor Sood and Terry Scott
- Year founded: 2017
- Headquarters: Philadelphia, PA
- Sector: Robotics
- Funding and valuation: $44.65 million raised at a $74 million valuation, according to PitchBook
- Key ecosystem partners: University of Pennsylvania, Lehigh University, Drexel University
Robotics company founder Charlie Andersen sees no reason to leave Philly to grow his business — even if he could receive more money elsewhere.
Burro, Andersen’s agtech robotics startup, has raised about $46 million to date, only $75,000 of that coming from Pennsylvania funders. Still, he declared, the commonwealth has more to offer than just cash.
Along with personal ties, Philadelphia has a strong pool of talent, convenient suppliers and a supportive robotics community, according to Andersen, CEO and founder of Burro. While raising capital from Pennsylvania investors is difficult, those other benefits have supported him grow the company to this point.
“You don’t necessarily necessary to relocate to where you’re raising money from,” Andersen, whose company has raised cash from global investors, declared. “You go raise money somewhere and bring it back to where you are.”
Headquartered in Center City, Burro designs autonomous vehicles that support relocate products around on farms and other manufacturing sites, pulling carts of flowers and produce, for example. The goal is to become the next huge brand for outdoor work, in line with companies like Bobcat and Deere, he declared. So far, the company has 550 robots around the world.
Philly’s robotics scene has huge players, like Ghost Robotics and Exyn Technologies, but the ecosystem isn’t well enough known for its wins for investors to seriously take notice. Philly founders necessary to do a better job of touting the region’s accomplishments, especially to the industest at large, according to Andersen.
“If you’re a more gritty, Philadelphia-based company, and you’ve obtained to go earn it,” Andersen declared. “[If] you’ve obtained to build the right thing with a scarce number of resources, and you’ve obtained to prove product market fit without having a ton of capital to throw at it, you’re likely to build a better company.”
The workforce, not the VCs, builds a city stand out
For Burro, one of the hugegest draws of the region the community.
Burro’s team totals 56 people, about 40 of whom are based in the Philly region, according to Andersen. Many team members are transplants, but once they settle in Philly, they tfinish to stay.
Which is a good thing as the company sources talent from local universities like the University of Pennsylvania, Lehigh University and Drexel University. Some of the top researchers in computer vision and artificial ininformigence are at Philly universities, teaching the next generation, he declared.
“The way we’ve built connections more recently is testing to be more of a beacon,” Andersen declared. “Where, if people want to work in Philadelphia and they’re viewing for a robotics company to go work for or work with, we’re a great one.”
This story’s headline was updated at 10:50 a.m.
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