French-based Exotec, creator of the Skypod 3D warehouse robots, announces today a $90 million series-C financing round, led by 83North – with participation from Dell Technologies Capital – and supported by historical investors, Iris Capital and Breega. In total, Exotec has raised $111M since 2016.
Exotec Expanding Internationally
Exotec plans to use the money to help add fuel to their international expansion plans. In April, Exotec signed a partnership deal with US-based Conveyco, one of their first US channel partners. Exotec has also recently formed a US-based team in Atlanta and an Asia-based team in Tokyo. Exotec has the ambition to become the leader in robotics solutions for logistics and forecasts they will produce up to 4,000 robots per year by 2021.
Exotec is a cube-based automated storage and retrieval (cASRS) solution and was included in the recently released 2020 Warehouse Solutions Buyers Guide from The Mobile Robot Guide. The high-density storage solution enables retailers and e-merchants to quadruple their warehouse productivity and increase up to five times their storage capacity.
Over 4 million commercial robots will be installed in over 50,000 warehouses by 2025. This is up from just under 4,000 robotic warehouses in 2018, according to ABI Research.
“There is a global need for robotics solutions in warehouses, but logisticians are often concerned about investing in traditional fixed automation in this fast-changing world. This $50 billion market should be supplied with flexible and efficient solutions to fulfill customers’ needs and new shopping timelines. We offer a new generation of warehouse robotics and have the largest deployed and operational systems across three continents,” said Romain Moulin, Co-founder and CEO of Exotec.
Exotect Sees Growth in 2020
Exotec revenue doubled in 2020 as several new international clients, including Carrefour and Fast Retailing (Uniqlo group), adopted their technology in key warehouses. This latest funding round will allow the company to further expand and deliver their fully adjustable robotics solution to a wider range of clients in the U.S., Europe and Asia, across numerous B2B and B2C retail sectors such as fashion, grocery, pharmaceutical, hardware, and manufacturing.
“Brands and retailers are seeing tremendous surge in e-commerce, accelerated by the current pandemic. They must now transform their supply chain to gain competitive advantage. Exotec is addressing this challenge and is the leading player in scalable robotics systems,” said Rudi Lueg, Managing Director of North America at Exotec.
The partnership announced at the end of 2019 between Exotec and international retail company, Fast Retailing, is now delivering its benefits to the group. The technology is under deployment in two warehouses in Japan, with 1,000 Skypods improving logistics efficiency for Uniqlo stores. Exotec Nihon has been created to support the operations in Japan and more than 30 employees will be hired in the coming months.
Leading the round, Laurel Bowden, Partner at 83North, stated: “83North has invested in many teams and companies enabling the future of e-commerce. In our opinion, Exotec is one of those special companies, where the founders’ backgrounds, company culture, outstanding technology, delighted customers and a rapidly changing market make it a very unique investment.”
Scott Darling, President of Dell Technologies Capital, added: “Exotec is revolutionizing the adoption of robotics through its innovative and unique technology. Having relied heavily on world-class R&D skills aligned with solid industrial processes, Exotec is at the forefront of this burgeoning market and clearly the leader in the field.”
Adding to this, Julien-David Nitlech, Managing Partner at Iris Capital noted: “Exotec has proven they can address their market needs in many new ways in the past year, scaling in very selective markets such as Japan or food distribution. We are confident that this new round will fuel yet another record growth phase across three continents.“
