Contoro Robotics

Austin maker of Dock Duck, a robot that unloads floor-loaded trailers; $22M raised

Startup · Shipping · Robotics leader · Austin, Texas, United States · 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. 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 $12M Series A in March 2025, with Doosan, 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

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

Competitors

Companies with overlapping products. Direct = same customers and same job; Adjacent = overlapping technology or market, different focus.

• Boston Dynamics

  Direct competitor

  USHumanoid OEM

  Both 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.

  Sources (3)

  • Contoro Robotics (company website)
  • Boston Dynamics (company website)
  • Stretch: mobile warehouse robot (Boston Dynamics)

• Exotec

  Adjacent competitor

  FRRobotics leader

  Both 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.

  Sources (2)

  • Contoro Robotics (company website)
  • Exotec (company website)

• Mytra

  Adjacent competitor

  USRobotics leader

  Both 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.

  Sources (2)

  • Contoro Robotics (company website)
  • Mytra (company website)

Recent news

• Apr 1, 2026 — 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
• Jan 14, 2026 — Dock Duck has unloaded more than 450 trailers in a year at States Logistics, and the customer plans more units Robotics 24/7
• Mar 25, 2025 — Raises $12M Series A, bringing total funding to $22M PRWeb

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)

Confidence: medium.

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