CAMBRIDGE, MA -- (Marketwire) -- 09/08/09 -- Heartland Robotics, Inc. today announced it has secured $7 million in Series A-1 funding, led by Charles River Ventures. The new funding comes less than one year after the company, which develops robots to increase productivity and efficiency in manufacturing environments, closed Series A funding of $5 million from Bezos Expeditions -- which also participated in the current round -- and BrooksLab, LLC.

Rodney Brooks, Heartland Robotics' Founder, Chairman and Chief Technical Officer, is also a co-Founder of iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ: IRBT) and the former Director of the MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Dr. Brooks founded Heartland Robotics in July 2008 with a vision to reinvigorate American manufacturing: "Our robots will help revitalize this important sector of the economy by offering efficiencies and versatility where traditional industrial robotic solutions are cost prohibitive or insufficiently flexible."

Patrick Sobalvarro, Heartland Robotics' President, spoke to the opportunity the additional funding will bring to the development of the company's products, "We're very pleased to have brought on a set of world-class, experienced investors who bring strategic insight to the table. We're looking forward to working with them as we develop our product, build the company, and prepare to go to market."

Devdutt Yellurkar, a partner at lead investor Charles River Ventures, said, "Heartland is on to a very big idea that has the potential to revolutionize how we think about and approach manufacturing in the U.S. Rodney and his team have unmatched expertise in robotics and are pioneering a new concept that will make an enormous impact not just on the manufacturing industry but our entire economy."