iRobot joins investment group supporting former Kiva Systems executives. 6 River Systems Inc., a developer of warehouse fulfillment robots cofounded by former executives of Kiva Systems LLC, announced Tuesday it has raised $6 million in financing from a group including iRobot Corp. Boston-based 6 River Systems was founded in 2015 by executives from classroom technology provider Mimio and from Kiva Systems, the North Reading, Mass. firm that was acquired by Amazon.com Inc. in 2012 for $775 million after helping to pioneer the use of self-driving robots in warehouses. Amazon has since rebranded Kiva as Amazon Robotics and ceased selling its products to any other companies, giving the e-commerce giant an advantage over its rivals in performing e-commerce fulfillment. 6 River Systems is now targeting that same application, with a mission to "redefine fulfillment automation for e-commerce and retail operations," the company website says . 6 River Systems plans to use the new funding to expand its engineering team and to support customer pilot programs now in progress. "The acquisition of Kiva left a void in this space that has yet to be filled," Seth Winterroth of the early-stage venture fund Eclipse Ventures LLC, which joined iRobot in raising the investment, said in a statement. "This, coupled with rapid growth in e-commerce globally, has resulted in a need for next-gen automation tools." By entering this market, 6 River Systems is joining a number of other robotics startups that are also aiming to follow Kiva’s footsteps into the autonomous material handling systems business. Last week, the Canadian firm Clearpath Robotics Inc. rolled out a miniaturized model of its self-driving vehicle used in factories and warehouses . Other entries include Locus Robotics Corp. of Andover, Mass. and Harvest Automation Inc. of Billerica, Mass. Despite only broad similarities to Kiva’s approach of using […]