# Austin Oehlerking

> Austin Oehlerking is the co-founder and CEO of Boxbot, an Alameda, California robotics company reinventing how parcels are stored, sorted, and sequenced inside the supply chain. A mechanical engineer trained at MIT with a Harvard MBA, he cut his teeth building electric vehicles at Arcimoto and Tesla before starting Boxbot in 2016 as a self-driving last-mile delivery venture. When customers proved more excited about the box-handling robot than the delivery van, Oehlerking pivoted the company toward AI-driven, high-density parcel storage, turning the flat conveyor belt into a three-dimensional machine. Boxbot has raised roughly $28-29.5M from Playground Global, Toyota Ventures, Maersk Growth, Pear Ventures, and Artiman Ventures.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Boxbot
- **Organizations:** Boxbot, Tesla, Arcimoto, Raytheon, MIT Field Intelligence Lab
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** SB, Mechanical Engineering (finance specialization), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Master's, Mechanical Engineering (power electronics, microcontroller programming), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MBA, Harvard Business School
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Boxbot, raising roughly $28-29.5M from top venture firms, Won Pear Ventures' 2016-17 UC Berkeley Startup Challenge and a $250,000 prize, Led software work on the Tesla Model S and RAV4 EV programs

## Career timeline

- **2004** — Interned at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems; founded the ThinkBIG Club at MIT to connect student entrepreneurs
- **2005** — Co-founded SharpEdge Studios, a casual video game with a virtual economy and microtransactions
- **2008** — Graduated MIT with an SB in Mechanical Engineering
- **2009-2010** — Director of Vehicle Engineering at Arcimoto, an Oregon electric commuter-vehicle startup
- **2011-2014** — Senior Software Engineer and Team Lead at Tesla Motors, working on the RAV4 EV and Model S
- **2016** — Co-founded Boxbot with Mark Godwin as an autonomous last-mile delivery company
- **2017** — Boxbot won Pear Ventures' UC Berkeley Startup Challenge and a $250,000 prize
- **2023** — Pivoted Boxbot from last-mile delivery robots to AI-driven 3D parcel storage; raised $12M Series A led by Playground Global

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Boxbot, raising roughly $28-29.5M from top venture firms
- Won Pear Ventures' 2016-17 UC Berkeley Startup Challenge and a $250,000 prize
- Led software work on the Tesla Model S and RAV4 EV programs
- Earned degrees from MIT (twice) and Harvard Business School
- Successfully pivoted Boxbot from autonomous delivery to warehouse automation based on real customer demand

## Latest updates

- **2023-09** — Boxbot raised a $12M Series A led by Playground Global and announced its pivot to AI-driven parcel storage; former UPS CFO Richard Peretz joined the board.

## Links

- Website: https://boxbot.io
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/oehlerking
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/aoehlerk
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/Boxbot-263537870982794/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/austin-oehlerking
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-01