Tiger Global-backed robotics company GreyOrange starts US operations

Singapore-headquartered robotics and warehousing automation company GreyOrange Pte. Ltd said on Wednesday it has started operations in the United States, where it also plans to set up a manufacturing facility.

GreyOrange, which operates in India through a local subsidiary, said in a statement it has set up its US headquarters at Atlanta and will deploy 740 robots at its first client site in the US.

Tiger Global-backed GreyOrange has also hired Chris Barber as regional chief executive of North America. Barber was previously vice president of southern operations at Honeywell Intelligrated.

“Embracing robots, who work hand-in-hand with humans, enables our customers to boost overall productivity, minimize inventory waste, increase consumer choice and improve their company’s bottom line,” said Samay Kohli, chief executive and co-founder at GreyOrange.

The company plans to complete its local manufacturing facility in the US by 2019. It also plans to deploy and additional 20,000 robots in the country, the statement added.

GreyOrange was founded in 2009 by BITS Pilani alumni Kohli and Akash Gupta, who is its CTO. The duo had earlier built AcYut, an indigenously developed series of humanoid robots.

GreyOrange makes products for materials handling. Its flagship products are ‘Butler’, a fleet of mobile robots that can manage order fulfilment inside a warehouse; and ‘Sorter’, which helps in sorting of orders in warehouses and distribution centres.

GreyOrange’s system works via proprietary machine learning and swarm intelligence algorithms. 

The company has customer sites in Japan, India, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the US. It serves companies in the e-commerce, retail, consumer electronics, fashion, third-party logistics, fast-moving consumer goods, apparel and industrial tools sectors. 

In India, the company works with Flipkart, Pepperfry, Aramex, DTDC, Delhivery and Mahindra Tractors, according to its website.

For the financial year ended 31 March 2017, the company reported a rapid rise in revenue but suffered heavier losses from its India operations. 

In March this year, the company said it developed an artificial intelligence-driven robot that acts like a butler to automate the order picking process in logistic centers and warehouses. The new robot is aimed at e-commerce and logistic companies. 

The company last raised funds in 2015 when it secured $30 million from existing investors Tiger Global and Blume Ventures. In 2014, it had raised Series A funding from Blume, Tiger Global and other investors.