Teleo raises $16.2M to scale supervised autonomy for heavy equipment

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Teleo revealed this week it raised $16.2 million in Series A extension funds. The new funding will be used to scale customer deployments of semi- autonomous heavy equipment, continue expanding into new industries beyond construction, and enhance its AI capabilities.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Teleo announced new orders for 34 machines from 9 new customers across pulp and paper, logging, port logistics, munition clearing, and agriculture industries. The company aims to expand into airports, waste and recycling, logistics, warehousing, and more.

The Series A extension came in two parts. It closed a $9.2 million extension in April 2024 that was led by UP.Partners and included Trousdale Ventures and F-Prime Capital. The second, $7 million extension closed this week and was also led by UP.Partners. It included Triatomic Capital and returning investors. Teleo has raised $29.8 million to date since it was founded in 2019, including its Series A funding round in June 2022.

“Our strong conviction in Teleo’s solution comes from the incredible impact their technology for remote and autonomous operations of heavy machinery is having for some of the largest operators in the world. In addition to significant productivity gains, Teleo creates a positive effect on the workforce, where skilled labor shortages are endemic to the industry,” said Adam Grosser, Chairman and Managing Partner at UP.Partners. “Teleo’s retrofit technology helps to make equipment operator jobs more accessible and safer, in addition to improving customer profitability by reviving machines that were otherwise sitting idle.”

Teleo delivers supervised autonomy

Teleo’s autonomy retrofit kit transforms various types of heavy equipment, including bulldozers, wheel loaders, and excavators, into semi-autonomous and remotely-operated robots. This approach, known as supervised autonomy, allows one operator to oversee several machines working together. The operator can remotely manage complex tasks from a central command center, whether situated nearby or thousands of miles away.

Many industries rely on heavy machinery for repetitive and predictable tasks. Teleo’s technology offers a solution, especially during significant labor shortages. For instance, the Associated General Contractors of America reports that 91% of construction firms struggle to find workers, leading to increased costs and project delays.

“There is a strong value proposition of our technology across many industries that leverage heavy machinery and our focus is to fulfill and scale our solid pipeline of orders,” said Vinay Shet, co-founder and CEO, Teleo. “There’s a wider, untapped range of industries where Teleo Supervised Autonomy can provide instant value. We will use these funds to further deploy and scale our technology so we can continue to address historic labor shortages and deliver a positive impact.”

I had the opportunity to visit the Teleo headquarters in Palo Alto earlier in 2024 and witness a live demo of the driver station from Shet. He was remotely operating an articulated loader located 20 miles away, across the bay in Fremont CA. We successfully maneuvered the vehicle around the site and operated the lift bucket to transfer dirt.

Remote operators have a first-person view from the cab of the remote equipment and control the operations with foot pedals and dual joysticks. | Credit: Teleo

The Teleo operator station includes multiple large screens with multiple camera feeds, and vehicle stats, along with dual stick controllers and foot pedals. The perception engine onboard the remote vehicle monitors a 360-degree envelope around the vehicle and alerts the teleoperator to the presence of any obstacles (including humans) that might be in the proximity of the vehicle.

Teleo equips the remote vehicle with a control box and a suite of cameras and sensors that provide the operator with a 360 view around the vehicle. | Credit: Teleo

Humans can manually operate the features of the remote equipment, including loading/unloading and digging. However, for long drives around the remote site, the operator can switch the vehicle to autonomous mode to haul or reposition it. Meanwhile, the teleoperator stays at the station, monitoring the vehicle’s progress.

The operator can teleport into another vehicle on the site and monitor or control its missions. This allows a single operator to manage a fleet of autonomous vehicles. Operators can perform this function from a trailer at the work site, or remotely, from a secure cloud connection.

Teleo’s global dealer partner network, which was launched in 2023, includes dealer partners in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, North Africa, and the Middle East. The company also demonstrated the world’s longest supervised autonomous operation in history, when operators in Dallas controlled machines at a worksite in Finland, over 5,000 miles away.

Competitive market

There are a growing number of competitors to Teleo in the construction market, including Built Robotics, Safe AI, and the OEM equipment manufacturers. The pace of innovation is accelerating, the technology is maturing and the networking infrastructure to support access to the remote vehicles and operators is growing. Teleo is now positioned to accelerate its growth and market share.