At the same time labor is as scarce when it comes to forklift drivers as it is for pickers. Still, those same warehouses still require movement and management at the pallet level. The robots supplied by companies like Fetch are not generally used for e-commerce picking applications. Such acquisitions follow in the footsteps of Kiva Systems, which was famously acquired by Amazon for US $775 million.Ĭompanies that produce robots that assist piece picking as part of fulfillment operations have benefited benefit from the boom in e-commerce, mobile robots for general purpose material flow do not attract the same level of demand. High-profile acquisitions and valuations such as 6 River Systems (US $450 million) and Locus Robotics (US $1billion) are indicative of the extremely rapid pace of growth and the massive TAM (total addressable market) potential for robots used in e-commerce picking applications. This perhaps rather too cautious approach has led it to be surpassed by its peers and allowed space for the dozens of new entrants to gain a foothold. It has retained a strong focus on quality and safety, and also on fleet management software. Instead it has mainly developed relationships in-house, targeting major accounts and working more cautiously to refine and perfect its mobile offering. It does not use distributors and has only recently started to partner with major systems integrators, such as Korber. The result has been that it has quickly captured market share across the globe.įetch, on the other hand, has taken a much more conservative approach. And, although its average fleet sizes are quite modest, the virtual sales team which its distribution network brings has encouraged end customers to start using its robots. MiR has recruited an army of hundreds of distributors and integrators to sell its mobile robots worldwide. MiR benefits from a large parent organization following its acquisition in 2018 by Teradyne but, this aside, MiR has always taken a very different strategy to Fetch in terms of growing its business. In our view, this impressive valuation shows that Zebra believes it can scale Fetch’s sales rapidly, and that its products are unique despite the plethora of vendors now on the scene.ĭespite Fetch’s strong credentials when the company launched back in 2014, it was quickly surpassed by other vendors such as Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR generated revenues of approximately $40m in 2020). The US $305 million valuation may look high on first glance –a valuation of approximately 30 X its annual sales – but it is in-line with Locus Robotics’ recent financing round which valued the company at US $1 billion. Benefiting from this strong pedigree, Fetch Robotics was one of the first companies to develop a commercial autonomous mobile robot for material handling applications. Fetch was founded in 2014, has approximately 100 employees and generates annual orders of approximately $10 million.įetch Robotics is a pioneer in the autonomous mobile robots industry – its founder and CEO Melonee Wise was one of the first employees at robotics lab and incubator Willow Garage. Zebra, which provides various warehouse technology such as barcode scanners and printers, has over 8000 employees, 10,000 channel partners and generated revenues of over $4 billion in 2020. It will be paying $290 million to acquire the 95% of the company that it does not already own, in a deal that values Fetch Robotics at $305 million. On July 1st Zebra Technologies announced that it would be acquiring Fetch Robotics.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |