Contoro Robotics
Spotlight
Austin maker of Dock Duck, a robot that unloads floor-loaded trailers; $22M raised
Startup · Shipping · Robotics leader · Austin, Texas, United States · Founded 2022 · contoro.com
Included as a spotlight below the $100M funding bar: it has raised about $22M. Austin-based, with real deployments, but only one named customer site (in California). A March 2025 securities filing shows $13.5M sold, slightly more than the announced $12M round; the company's own figures are used here. A 2023 securities filing shows $6.0M sold, matching the company's $6M total after its pre-seed and seed. Valuation not disclosed. Headcount not published.
Profile
Contoro makes Dock Duck, a robot that drives into a truck trailer or shipping container and unloads loose, unpalletized boxes onto a conveyor. A patented two-sided gripper handles a range of box sizes, and remote operators take over when the robot's AI struggles, so it keeps learning each customer's freight. Customers pay per container unloaded rather than buying the machine. At a States Logistics warehouse in Buena Park, California, the robot unloaded more than 450 trailers in its first year, and KUKA published a case study of its arm running Contoro's software at the same site. Contoro raised a $1.3M pre-seed led by Village Global in 2022 and a $4.7M seed led by SV Investment in June 2023, then a $12M Series A in March 2025, led by Doosan, with Coupang and Amazon's Industrial Innovation Fund among the backers. Its CEO previously ran Harmonic Bionics, an Austin rehabilitation-robot company.
Leadership
- Youngmok "Mok" Yun, Founder & CEO
- Praveen Soundararajan, Director of Strategy & Operations
- John Cook, Director of Business Development & Deployment
Appearances
Talks, panels and interviews by this company’s leaders, newest first. What a speaker said is their own claim, not our finding.
- Austin, USFireside chat
Antler Korea and US Teams event
“The Korea Playbook for Austin Physical AI Founders”
Youngmok "Mok" Yun, Founder & CEO
What it was billed to cover (from an organizer’s program description; we have no report of what was said)
Yun was billed to join Antler Korea partner Jiho Kang for a founder conversation, covering moving robotics from development to deployment, why Korean capital has been more willing to back capex-heavy physical AI, and where he sees Asia's role heading.
Coverage and sources:Event page
As of . Items we could not verify are marked or left out.
Flagship products
- Dock Duck Autonomous machines
Mobile robot arm that drives into a trailer and unloads loose, unpalletized boxes onto a conveyor, with remote human operators stepping in on hard cases; sold per container unloaded
Funding and valuation
Latest round
$12M
Series A · Mar 25, 2025
Led by Doosan Investment
Also Coupang, Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, IMM, SV Investment, KB Investment, Kakao Ventures, Future Play.
New investors in this round: Doosan Investment, Coupang, Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund and IMM; the others are existing backers. The English release names no lead; Korean press reports Doosan Investment led it.
Total raised
$22M
As of Mar 25, 2025
The company says the round brought its total funding to $22M
Trademarks
2 names filed in the US since 2025 · last checked .
- ADAPTAI AbandonedIndustrial robots.
- DUOGRASP AbandonedIndustrial robots.
Source: USPTO Trademark Search, matched on the company’s legal names. Rechecked on the 1st and 15th of each month. A filing shows intent to use a name in the US, not a launched product.
Competitors
Companies with overlapping products. Direct = same customers and same job; Adjacent = overlapping technology or market, different focus.
Boston Dynamics
Direct competitorBoth sell robots that unload boxes from trailers and containers: Boston Dynamics is training the electric Atlas for Hyundai's factories and also sells Spot and Stretch, while Contoro Robotics makes Dock Duck, a robot that unloads floor-loaded trailers.
Exotec
Adjacent competitorBoth sell robots into warehouses and distribution centers: Exotec makes the Skypod warehouse order-picking robot system, while Contoro Robotics makes Dock Duck, a robot that unloads floor-loaded trailers.
Mytra
Adjacent competitorBoth sell robots into warehouses and distribution centers: Mytra sells a robotic grid for storing and retrieving pallet-sized loads, while Contoro Robotics makes Dock Duck, a robot that unloads floor-loaded trailers.
Recent news
- — Coupang says it invested in Contoro and is exploring a pilot of its unloading robots at Coupang logistics sites in Korea (amount undisclosed) Coupang
- — KUKA publishes a case study: its arm with Contoro's software unloads 4 to 5 trailers per shift versus 2 to 3 by hand KUKA
- — Dock Duck has unloaded more than 450 trailers in a year at States Logistics, and the customer plans more units Robotics 24/7
- — Raises $12M Series A, bringing total funding to $22M PRWeb
- — Raises $4.7M seed led by SV Investment, with Kakao Ventures, Bass Investment, Future Play and UT Austin Seed Fund; total $6M including a 2022 pre-seed of $1.3M led by Village Global PR Newswire
Sources
- Contoro Robotics Secures $12M Series A to Bring AI-Powered Trailer Unloading to Scale (PRWeb) (Mar 25, 2025)
- About Contoro (Contoro Robotics) (Oct 9, 2026)
- Contoro Robotics and States Logistics offload 450 trailers in one year (Robotics 24/7) (Jan 14, 2026)
- Robots Unload Truck Trailers, Streamline Warehousing at 3PL Company (KUKA) (Apr 1, 2026)
- Form D: Contoro Inc. (SEC) (Mar 20, 2025)
- CONTORO ROBOTICS RAISES $4.7M IN SEED ROUND (PR Newswire) (Jun 28, 2023)
- Gunderson Dettmer Advises Contoro Robotics in its $4.7M Seed led by SV Investment (Gunderson Dettmer) (Jun 28, 2023)
- Form D: Contoro Inc. (SEC) (Jun 8, 2023)
- 아마존·쿠팡·두산이 반했다…한국계 美 '콘토로 로보틱스'에 투자 (Yonhap Infomax) (Mar 6, 2025)
- Coupang Announces $84M in investments for Global AI Tech Startups (Coupang) (Apr 14, 2026)
- North Austin startup Contoro Robotics looks to transform warehouse industry (Community Impact) (Oct 11, 2026)
Confidence: medium.