Silicon Valley darling generates $140 million in latest funding, looks to open Boston R&D centre
Devin Jones
Automation General Machine Building Robotics Silicon ValleyGrey Orange Robotics can add investment magnate Peter Thiel to its laundry list of backers, which includes Mitsubishi and Flipkart.
Warehouse robotics startup GreyOrange received a $140 million in it’s latest round of Series-C funding bringing it’s totally to $170 million from the last three months.
With a large portion stemming from Mithril Capital—the venture firm co-founded by Silicon Valley’s Peter Thiel—the latest round of funding comes hot on the heels of GreyOrange’ recent expansion into North America, opening it’s U.S based headquarters in Atlanta.
Created in 2011 by Samay Kohli and Akash Gupta, GreyOrange specializes in automated robotics for warehouse-based tasks, namely in it’s “butler” robot which moves heavy machinery around a plant, and it’s “sorter” belt which organizes packages. But in an interview with TechCrunch, Kohli and Gupta stated that in the next five years GreyOrange plans on being the first with a fully automated warehouse.
“The fundraise is going to be more about into getting our own manufacturing supply chain and into R&D,” said Gupta. “We are still very focused on that (warehousing) part of the supply chain because there is enough room to get the efficiency right in the current warehousing and sortation centers. We will also double down investments in our Boston R&D center, as well as our centers in India and Singapore.”
The sorting system has attached robotic arms that are capable of sorting through 6,000 packages an hour, but also features advanced tools like dimensioning and weighing modules. In addition to the current product line, GreyOrange has launched The Butler PickPal, which is an automated picking system.
Prior to this latest round of investing—which includes Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal and previous backers Blume Ventures—GreyOrange had raised $35 million from the likes of Mitsubishi and Flipkart.
In addition to opening their Atlanta headquarters, GreyOrange has plans to open an R&D research center in Boston which would bring them to three R&D facilities as well as five regional offices globally. In a press statement the company noted the fact that they’re looking to deploy 20,000 robots within the next three years.
GreyOrange also plans on expanding its product line with similar robotic systems that compliment what they already offer. And according to Bansal “The team will build on its strengths, especially in AI and machine learning, to launch new generation products for flexible automation.”
