Sereact, a Stuttgart-based company building AI systems for warehouse robots, added European fashion platform Zalando to its Series B as a strategic investor, bringing the round to $116M and total funding above $145M. Headline led the round in April alongside Bullhound Capital, Daphni, Felix Capital, and returning backers Air Street Capital, Creandum, and Point Nine. Zalando’s interest centers on returns, which account for roughly half of everything it ships, and Sereact has built a dual-arm robot that opens boxes, pulls items out, folds garments, and processes returns without a human. Sereact says the setup runs about 30% cheaper than manual handling, with more than 200 systems live across Europe. Fresh capital funds the next version of its Cortex robotics platform and expansion in North America, where it opened a Boston office in June.
