Robotics Company GreyOrange Planning US Listing To Raise Over $500 Mn

Tiger Global-backed Indian robotics company GreyOrange is reportedly evaluating a US listing to raise $500 Mn-$600 Mn. The public listing could value the artificial intelligence (AI) robotics company at $1.5 Bn-$1.7 Bn.

According to ET, which first reported the development, the company is in early-stage discussions with investment banks JP Morgan, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley for the listing, which could happen by the end of this year or early next year. 

“The company concluded a fresh round of fundraising last year. The next round of funding is likely to be through a listing in the US. The company has almost become a global firm now, with large US operations,” an official told the publication.

GreyOrange joins the list of several other Indian companies such as Grofers, Flipkart, Dream11 and Pine Labs that are planning to list in the US either this year or next year. 

Founded in 2011 by Akash Gupta and Samay Kohli, GreyOrange is working towards modernising order fulfilment through AI-driven software and mobile robots built together so they cooperate in deciding on and executing warehouse activities that maximise payoffs and minimise tradeoffs to create the highest yield. The company’s fulfilment operating system GreyMatter considers predictive and real-time data regarding orders, promises, inventory, shipping windows, and resources to orchestrate how workers and robots work together to fulfil the right orders at the right time.

To date, GreyOrange has raised close to $170 Mn from investors such as Tiger Global, Blume Ventures and Mithril Capital. 

GreyOrange’s clientele includes India’s largest ecommerce retailer Flipkart (cofounder Binny Bansal is an investor); fashion portal Myntra; furniture retailer Pepperfry; Mahindra Tractors; courier-services companies DTDC and Dubai-based Aramex, among others. 

GreyOrange competes with several startups in India’s logistics space such as BlackBuck and Fleetx.io, although these companies have different offerings and business models. 

Streamlining Logistics For India

The logistics market in India has been fragmented for the longest time, even though in the last few years, several tech startups have identified the need to organise this sector. In the context of the funding amount, the recorded growth rate between 2014 and 2018 for startups in the logistics sector is 226%, according to Inc42 Plus.

The market size of the Indian logistics sector is expected to hit $215 Bn by 2020, logging 10.5% CAGR, according to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF). Logistics also employs 22 Mn people and the count is expected to surge to 40 Mn by 2020. At present, the draft national logistics policy is under works and is expected to bring down India’s expenditure on logistics to 9% of GDP from the existing 14%.

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