Amazon acquired warehouse robotics company Kiva Systems in 2012.
Amazon announced the acquisition on March 19, 2012, agreeing to pay approximately $775 million in cash. Kiva, founded in 2003 by Mick Mountz with Peter Wurman and Raffaello D’Andrea, developed mobile robots that moved storage shelves or pods to human workers. This approach reduced the need for employees to walk long distances through fulfillment centers searching for products.
The purchase was a major logistics investment because Amazon’s business depended on moving an enormous variety of products quickly and accurately. Kiva’s robots could navigate using markers on the warehouse floor, slide beneath inventory pods, lift them, and deliver them to designated stations.
Another common mix-up is the company’s later name. Amazon continued operating the technology but renamed Kiva Systems Amazon Robotics in 2015. The acquisition year remains 2012, while the new corporate identity belongs to a later stage of the company’s development. Amazon also stopped broadly selling Kiva’s systems to outside customers, using the technology mainly within its own fulfillment network.