Robots Driving Forklifts Score Venture Capital, Create Jobs

Silicon Valley investors are increasing bets on a Pittsburgh company that turns a venerable machine of the past century of industrialization -- the forklift -- into a driver of the e-commerce boom.

Seegrid Corp., a maker of autonomous forklifts and robot-powered vehicles used to move materials around warehouses and factories, just closed on equity financing totaling $52 million from Menlo, California-based venture fund G2VP LLC and an undisclosed group of tech and robotics investors.

The deal, with UBS Group AG serving as an adviser, brought to $150 million the total amount of funding received by Seegrid, which has a ...