Locus Robotics said on May 19, 2026 it had acquired Nexera Robotics, a Vancouver-based startup whose patented NeuraGrasp™ end-effector uses AI grasping, computer vision and a soft membrane to pick up almost any SKU a warehouse can throw at it.
What Locus Is Buying
Nexera spent five years and six generations of hardware refining NeuraGrasp, which has now logged thousands of operating hours and tens of millions of test picks. The gripper’s membrane deforms around each item, so a single end-effector can handle porous textiles, loosely bagged goods, perforated polybags, irregular packaging, delicate items and small or contoured products that traditional vacuum and finger grippers struggle with.
Plugging Into Locus Array
The new IP slots into Locus Array, the company’s autonomous Robots-to-Goods picking platform that formally launched at MODEX 2026 and was named a top-three finalist for Best New Innovation. “Being able to efficiently grasp millions of SKU types with both speed and precision is where the next decade of value gets created,” said Locus CEO Rick Faulk. Nexera CEO Roy Belak will join Locus along with the full Nexera team.
Mobile Manipulation Race Heats Up
The deal lands as warehouse operators push beyond AMR-only fleets toward autonomous mobile manipulation, the holy grail of e-commerce fulfillment. For more on adjacent moves, see our coverage of Sereact’s $110M Series B for its Cortex 2.0 robot brain and Intrinsic’s push to make industrial automation more flexible.
Terms And Timeline
Financial terms of the all-stock-and-cash deal were not disclosed. Nexera will be wholly owned and operated as part of Locus Robotics, and integration of NeuraGrasp into Locus Array is expected to roll out in the coming months across Locus’ 350+ deployed sites.
Reporting based on coverage from Locus Robotics, RoboticsTomorrow, and The AI Insider.