GreyOrange, a provider of warehouse robotics and automation systems, has raised $140 million in Series C funding, claiming it marks “the largest round ever raised by an industrial robotics company”.
Mithril Capital, co-founded by Ajay Royan and Peter Thiel, led this round, which included Binny Bansal and other existing investors including Blume Ventures.
They join Mitsubishi, Flipkart, and Project Verte as investors in the company.
Ajay Royan, co-founder and managing general partner of Mithril Capital, will join the GreyOrange board.
Royan says: “As a global investor focused on emerging category leaders, Mithril is proud to partner with the GreyOrange team to advance our shared vision of a universal platform for flexible automation.
“As online and offline channels converge across a wide range of industries, we are excited to support robotic solutions that thoughtfully bridge the world of bits and the world of atoms, driving better health, safety and efficiency for workers and customers alike.”
Binny Bansal, Flipkart co-founder and group CEO, says: “As an entrepreneur myself, I have closely followed how Samay and Akash have built and grown GreyOrange to become an international technology company with customers across the world.
“I look forward to supporting and witnessing the new phase of their growth. The team will build on its strengths, especially in AI and machine learning, to launch new generation products for flexible automation.”
Founded in 2011 by Samay Kohli and Akash Gupta, GreyOrange is a global technology company headquartered in Singapore with offices in India, Japan, Germany and the US. The company operates major research and development Centers in India, the US and Singapore.
GreyOrange says the new funds will enable the company to “fulfill its vision of developing and deploying intuitive, flexible and scalable solutions for end-to-end automation across the supply chain, from factories to fulfillment centers, and beyond”.
GreyOrange plans to build on the strong growth it has experienced over the past five years by expanding operations across Asia, Europe and the US.
To that end, the company recently established its US headquarters and manufacturing facility in Atlanta, Georgia, and launched a major R&D center in Boston, Massachusetts.
Samay Kohli, co-Founder and CEO, GreyOrange, says: “We are fortunate to have an experienced management team and investors with a common vision to build the next generation of flexible supply chain systems.
“Having a veteran board member and strategist like Ajay Royan join the board will help fulfill that vision faster. Fundraising events are important milestones in a company’s journey, and for GreyOrange, the funds will allow us to continue to invest in our R&D and supply chain to maintain our market-leading position.”
He adds: “GreyOrange offers robotics technology for operating flexible automated warehouses and has the largest market share globally in this space. We’ve grown rapidly in recent years and will accelerate the expansion of our regional teams, especially within the US.
“We strongly believe in thinking global but operating local. As we continue to invest heavily in the R&D of our products, we will solve new problems for our customers and help transform the industry.”
With the ongoing e-commerce and omni-channel boom, more international and regional operators are accepting that intelligent, flexible robotics solutions offer the highest productivity and efficiency improvements, giving these businesses a competitive edge.
The GreyOrange Butler robotics solutions, using an AI-first approach, have been contracted for many new sites in Asia, Europe and the US for customers in third party logistics, e-commerce, consumer electronics, fashion and fast-moving consumer goods, among other industries.
The goods-to-person Butler, an AI-enabled autonomous robot, optimizes the supply chain process from inventory storage and replenishment to order picking.
The Butler PickPal combines AI and Machine Vision to revolutionize automated fulfilment, working in tandem with the Butler to accelerate multi-fold the pick process in fulfillment centers.
