The firm’s fulfillment system uses machine learning and robots to store and retrieve items within clients’ warehouses. The federal award includes both a non-repayable grant and repayable financing, CEO Scott Gravelle said. As part of its contribution agreement, the firm has committed to add 449 staff to its current 200-plus workforce by 2031 and spend unspecified “hundreds of millions” on R&D by 2038. (The Logic)

Talking point: The pandemic-induced e-commerce jump has increased retailers’ demand for Attabotics’ systems, Gravelle told The Logic in April. The firm is also planning another business model that would see it rent space to smaller brands and stores in Attabotics-operated micro-fulfillment facilities closer to urban centres, expanding its market to firms that wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford the technology or have a place to put it. Attabotics has been taking in capital to finance its growth. The firm raised a US$50-million Series C round from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and industrial giant Honeywell in August, just over a year after its US$25-million Series B. It’s also been the beneficiary of governments’ aim to diversify the Alberta economy away from natural resources. Western Economic Diversification Canada awarded it $5 million in September 2019, and the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund gave it $4.5 million in December 2018. On Tuesday, Gravelle said Attabotics plans to “apply the talent that the country’s already developed in the energy sector … to new areas.”