Reliance pours $132m into 🇮🇳 robotics firm

Indian conglomerate Reliance has invested US$132 million into India-based Addverb Technologies through its retail arm, making it the largest shareholder in the robotics company.

Image credit: Addverb Technologies

The latest investment pushes Addverb’s valuation to the range of US$265 million to US$270 million, Satish Shukla, co-founder of Addverb Technologies, told Tech in Asia.

Addverb will use the fresh funds to fuel its expansion plans into Europe and the US and enable the company to set up its robotics manufacturing facility in India, which will be completely automated.

The company is currently in talks to set up the robotics manufacturing facility, and has received interest from over three state governments.

The deal will also allow Addverb to leverage Reliance’s 5G and battery tech to help it conduct new energy initiatives and develop more advanced and affordable robots.

Founded in June 2016, Addverb is a robotics firm with operations in Singapore, the Netherlands, and Australia. It provides products across four verticals: robotics, automated storage and retrieval systems, picking, and software.

With this round of funding, the company plans to deploy robotics solutions across hospitals and airports.

Currently, it has over 100 customers across industries like retail, ecommerce, pharmaceuticals, fast-moving consumer goods, petrochemicals, and third-party logistics, among others.

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“Robotics is an evolving field, and innovation is our core differentiator,” said Addverb CEO Sangeet Kumar in a statement.

Among its offerings, the firm created a warehouse management system to control and optimize a client’s inventory storage and warehouse processes. It also offers a warehouse control system to communicate with different automation equipment and a fleet management system to oversee robots based on different navigation modules inside the warehouse.

For now, Addverb can manufacture 10,000 types of robots. The new manufacturing facility, which will be built in the financial year ending March  2023, will lift its production capacity to 50,000 robots in a year.