Ultra Robotics
Fleet services · US
Dual-arm AI robots leased as a monthly service that pack e-commerce orders and process returns at existing warehouse workstations.
Ultra (Brooklyn, NY; YC S24) builds and leases dual-arm AI robots that pack e-commerce orders and process returns at existing warehouse workstations. Its Operator robot installs in hours rather than weeks, uses RGB cameras and a vision-language-action policy trained on teleoperation data to output joint and gripper commands at about 10 Hz, and is billed as 'robots as a service' at a monthly fee instead of a capital purchase. Ultra builds and installs the hardware itself and pairs it with external robot-foundation-model software (Physical Intelligence) for task adaptation. The company says its units have packed more than 500,000 orders at U.S. sites (Fortune, 2026-10-09; Y Combinator company page).
Research mapping
Physical AI / Autonomy Software, Fleet Platforms & End Markets (L10) / Fleet services
Evidence boundary
Original analysis and independent corroboration remain under development. Commercial scale and durable technical advantage remain under review.
What makes it defensible
Ultra's edge is deployment speed plus data: a zero-integration, monthly-leased dual-arm cell that drops into existing workstations in hours, and the resulting real-world packing telemetry that trains its manipulation policy - the scarce input for warehouse manipulation at scale.
Position in the stack: Deployment and application layer: an integrator and fleet operator that buys arms, sensors and compute, wraps them in its own cell design and control software, and rents capacity to 3PLs. Owning the installed asset plus site-level install know-how, rather than the robot hardware, is where the position sits.
Who buys it
Named customers: Highline Commerce (3PL, Industry City, Brooklyn)
Founding team
Jon Miller Schwartz — CEO and Co-founder — Previously CPO at Voodoo Manufacturing, CEO at Layer By Layer (YC S13), Director of Product at Body Labs and at Arena AI; trained as a mechanical engineer.
Max Friefeld — COO and Co-founder — Co-founded Layer By Layer (YC S13) and Voodoo Manufacturing (YC W17); Harvey Mudd '13; led logistics optimisation teams at Boston Consulting Group before Ultra.
Oliver Ortlieb — CTO and Co-founder — Co-founded Voodoo Manufacturing and Layer By Layer; built the software and systems for one of the largest 3D-printing factories in the world; holds multiple 3D-printing patents.
Chetan Parthiban — Chief Scientist and Co-founder — Mathematics and robotics at the University of Pennsylvania (BA, MSE); one of the first machine-learning scientists at Arena, working on high-frequency decision-making.
SourceFinancing detail
- Last round
- $50M Series A (Oct 2026)
Investors: Framework Ventures
Mapped funds and investors
Direct relationships supported by published evidence.
Reported holdings as-of
No sourced relationships mapped yet.
Disclosed investment history
No sourced relationships mapped yet.
Showing up to four relationships in each group. ETF weights describe the fund’s portfolio, not ownership of this company. Private investment history does not establish current ownership.