Brightpick is turning mobile picking robots into grid-based fulfillment capacity

Brightpick launched Gridpicker on March 17, 2026, turning its deployed Autopicker technology into a grid-based fulfillment system. The launch followed Autopicker 2.0 in 2025 and named customer expansion with NAPA and Superior Communications, giving Brightpick a stronger evidence base than a product render or warehouse concept.

Brightpick grew out of Photoneo, founded in 2013 by Jan Zizka, Tomas Kovacovsky, and Michal Maly, with Branislav Pulis joining in 2015. Brightpick launched as a standalone business unit in 2021, and Photoneo Brightpick Group completed a $40 million Series B in January 2023. Jan Zizka serves as Brightpick co-founder and CEO.

Autopicker 2.0 handles picking, consolidation, and replenishment, averaging 70 to 80 picks per hour and increasing throughput by 50% over the first-generation robot. Brightpick says its fleet has trained on more than one billion picks. Giraffe works with Autopicker for tote retrieval up to six meters, while Gridpicker carries two order totes at once and targets 100 picks per hour per robot.

The customer evidence is specific. NAPA entered a strategic partnership with Brightpick in February 2026 for automotive parts distribution after already deploying Brightpick robots, adding another site. Superior Communications reported a Tennessee system running 50 Autopicker robots and reaching 3,500 picks per hour with two human pickers.

The competitive field includes AutoStore, Exotec, Ocado-style grid automation, Geekplus, Locus, RightHand Robotics, Covariant/Amazon picking work, and warehouse integrators combining storage, picking, and sortation. Brightpick's distinction is mobile robot picking inside fulfillment aisles and now a grid variant that tries to combine high-throughput storage with onboard picking.

Public material does not show deployed robot count by every NAPA site, customer-level retention, unit economics, pick accuracy by SKU class, fleet uptime by site, or intervention logs. The strategic test is whether Brightpick can keep expanding from mobile picking into grid-scale fulfillment without losing the flexibility that made Autopicker useful. If Gridpicker reaches production throughput while Superior-style deployments keep scaling, Brightpick becomes a warehouse automation platform rather than a robot picker vendor.

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