Exotec, a French start-up has raised $335 million in a Series D round which was led by Goldman Sachs’ Growth Equity business.
As of today, Exotec has reached a valuation of $2 billion. The funding round saw the likes of Dell Technologies Capital and 83North. Past investors in Exotec include Iris Capital, Breega, Bpifrance and 360 Capital Partners.
They have been tagged a leader in global warehouse robotics and they will use the funds to launch large-scale deployments in North America, Asia and Europe for global brands.
The signature component of Exotec is the Skypods – which are low-profile robots that roam the company autonomously. They operate by picking up litter and putting them in the right bin. This is of great importance to increase the warehouse’s storage density.
The Skypod does this work so that workers don’t have to roam the warehouse and they can focus on picking, packing and also making sure products go in and out of the warehouse.
Exotec can store lots of products in a single bin and they have created new robots to remove humans from one more step of the ordering process. Customers can use Skypickers to automatically pick goods from an inventory bin and put them in a ready-to-ship bin.
Co-founder and CEO, Romain Moulin, said ‘following the significant supply chain disruptions of the modern ears, there’s only room left for innovation. Exotec pioneers a new path: elegant collaboration between human and robot workers that will deliver warehouse(s) productivity in a lasting, far more sustainable way.’ Â
Exotec also plans to hire more than 500 new R&D engineers by 2025 which will help to accelerate the development of its high-performance warehouse automation technology. They recently signed eight large customers including Gap and Geodis in the region.
