Cavalla offers Cavalier on-site retrofitting kit to add autonomy to forklifts

Cavalla CTO Victor Boyd (left) and CEO Mo Nafisi (right) with a prototype of the Cavalier autonomy retrofit kit.
Cavalla CTO Victor Boyd (left) and CEO Mo Nafisi (right) with a prototype of Cavalier. Source: Cavalla

At the TechConSoCal event last week, Cavalla Industries came out of “stealth mode” with retrofit kits to provide autonomy to existing forklift fleets. The company said its technology is intended to give warehouses of all sizes access to the same automation that previously only huge fulfillment companies like Amazon could afford to use.

“We have seen a growing divergence in autonomy capabilities between multibillion-dollar warehouses and the midmarket,” stated Mohammad Nafisi, co-founder and CEO of Cavalla. “It’s clear that autonomy solutions requiring massive upfront costs will remain a luxury exclusive to the big players. Our mission is to make autonomy adoption a no-brainer for the rest of the market.”

Rather than require warehouse operators to buy entirely new fleets, the Cavalier system reduces upfront costs and installation time, Nafisi told Automated Warehouse.

Cavalla designs for accessibility

To keep equipment costs down, Cavalla uses off-the shelf components, Nafisi explained. Standardized electronics enable the San Francisco-based company to partner with local dealers for servicing.

“Cavalier is designed to retrofit a wide range of forklift models, and we’ve engineered it to be installed in record time,” asserted Victor Boyd, co-founder and chief technology officer of Cavalla.

“Our team has dedicated countless hours to developing a modular kit that simplifies the installation process to just a few hours, ensuring minimal disruption to warehouse operations,” he said. “This modularity also allows us to adapt quickly to different forklift configurations, enabling us to build a truly universal solution for warehouse autonomy.”

Cavalier is different from other autonomous lift truck products because it allows for easy integration into existing equipment, workflows, and warehouse management systems (WMS), said Nafisi.

“Our pilots can be implemented within five hours,” he said. “Longer-term projects depend on the extent of the deployment and edge cases that could come up in the workflows.”

“We promise under three-hour installation per forklift and in-person presence of our technician for the first one to three weeks of the deployment for training, customer success, and quality assurance purposes,” Nafisi added.

“We remove the upfront cost required to adopt autonomy and bring ROI [return on investment] to customers from Day 1,” he said. “We train their staffers on our systems using simple commands on an iPad.”

Cavalier to lead to warehouse digitalization

“Cavalla sees Cavalier as a crucial step in the evolution of warehouse digitization,” said the company, which was founded in 2023. “By retrofitting forklifts with autonomous capabilities and barcode scanning, Cavalier ensures that digital models remain grounded in real-time data, enabling warehouses to align their virtual plans with on-the-ground execution.” “

“This integration lays the foundation for future advancements, allowing operators to continuously refine workflows, improve decision-making, and fully embrace the benefits of digital transformation,” it said.

Cavalla collects data to improve its pick-and-place, navigation, and safety systems and anonymizes the data by removing faces, Nafisi noted. The company is also open to using its application programming interfaces (APIs) in partnership with customers to work with robots from other vendors.

Currently, only customers in California have access to Cavalier as a subscription service for electric forklifts, but Cavalla plans to expand to other states by the end of 2025.

The startup recently received pre-seed funding from Founders Inc., Jude Gomila, Remi Cadene, and other angel investors. It also got numerous inbound requests at TechConSoCal.

“We are backed by top-tier investors and have a massive network,” said Nafisi. “This allows us to have access to venture capital and financing partners.”

“We envision a future where adopting autonomy is as simple as installing software, creating agile, resilient supply chains that power the next generation of commerce and drive global progress,” he said.


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Eugene Demaitre
Written by

Eugene Demaitre

Eugene Demaitre is editorial director of the robotics group at WTWH Media. He was senior editor of The Robot Report from 2019 to 2020 and editorial director of Robotics 24/7 from 2020 to 2023. Prior to working at WTWH Media, Demaitre was an editor at BNA (now part of Bloomberg), Computerworld, TechTarget, and Robotics Business Review.

Demaitre has participated in robotics webcasts, podcasts, and conferences worldwide. He has a master's from the George Washington University and lives in the Boston area.