# Third Wave Automation

> Third Wave Automation builds autonomous high-reach forklifts powered by its Shared Autonomy Platform, which lets a single warehouse vehicle switch between fully autonomous, remote-assist, remote-operated, and manual modes. Founded by robotics veterans from Toyota Research Institute and Google, the Union City, California company pairs AI-driven reach trucks with its Armada fleet management software so one remote operator can supervise up to ten machines - helping 3PLs and warehouse operators address labor shortages, improve safety, and reach payback in under a year.

- **Founded:** 2018
- **Headquarters:** Union City, California, United States
- **Founders:** Arshan Poursohi (Co-Founder & CEO), James Davidson (Co-Founder & CTO), Julian (Mac) Mason (Co-Founder & Chief Robotics Officer)
- **Team size:** ~41 employees
- **Products:** TWA Reach, Shared Autonomy Platform, Armada Fleet Management System (ArmadaFMS), Collision Shield, TWA Extended Reach
- **Notable:** Raised $97M total across four rounds from investors including Toyota's Woven Capital, Norwest, Qualcomm Ventures and Innovation Endeavors., Closed $27M Series C in October 2024 led by Woven Capital to scale the Shared Autonomy Platform., Logged thousands of operational hours with zero safety incidents across commercial deployments.

## Products & services

- **TWA Reach** — A line of hybrid autonomous high-reach forklifts (reach trucks) that operate in four modes: fully autonomous, remote assist, remote operation, and traditional manual operation.
- **Shared Autonomy Platform** — The AI software stack that lets vehicles drive themselves and seek help from remote operators when they hit edge cases, using machine learning to continuously improve over time.
- **Armada Fleet Management System (ArmadaFMS)** — Fleet management software that lets a single remote operator monitor and supervise up to ten forklifts simultaneously from an off-site location.
- **Collision Shield** — Onboard obstacle detection and collision-avoidance system using automotive-grade 3D lidar mapping for cm-accuracy perception and 360-degree visibility.
- **TWA Extended Reach** — An extended-reach variant of the forklift line for higher racking and additional warehouse configurations.

## Achievements

- Raised $97M total across four rounds from investors including Toyota's Woven Capital, Norwest, Qualcomm Ventures and Innovation Endeavors.
- Closed $27M Series C in October 2024 led by Woven Capital to scale the Shared Autonomy Platform.
- Logged thousands of operational hours with zero safety incidents across commercial deployments.
- Signed a 2026 partnership with The Raymond Corporation (Toyota Material Handling North America) to bring physical AI to lift-truck fleets.
- Built a platform where one operator can supervise up to ten autonomous forklifts.
- Live customer deployments including Holman Logistics.

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — Announced partnership with The Raymond Corporation (Toyota Material Handling North America) to expand physical AI across lift-truck fleets, starting with an automated Raymond Swing-Reach truck.
- **2024-10** — Closed $27M Series C led by Toyota's Woven Capital, bringing total funding to $97M, to scale the Shared Autonomy Platform and expand manufacturing of TWA Reach forklifts.
- **2024-03** — Showcased a live demo of its autonomous forklifts at MODEX 2024 and introduced the TWA Extended Reach forklift.

## Links

- Website: https://thirdwave.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thirdwaveautomation
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/thirdwaveai

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/third-wave-automation
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-27