Reliance Industries has bought a majority stake worth up to $132 million in a robotics startup Addverb Technologies which uses robots to make e-commerce warehouses and energy production more efficient, accelerating its acquisition spree to build a digital future that combines content with commerce.
Addverb Technologies, which will continue to function independently after the acquisition, will use RIL deal proceeds to expand into other markets and establish one of the biggest robotics manufacturing facilities in Noida.
Addverb is based in the Noida suburb of New Delhi which designs and makes software and installs robotic systems, making it one of a limited number of companies in the world to work in every aspect of robotics, from hardware and software to deployment. The company already has a manufacturing plant in Noida where it produces around 10,000 robots per annum.
Addverb’s robots help pack Reliance’s oil and gas storage facilities, and it has designed automation for the company’s refinery in Jamnagar in Western India. It is implementing solutions in Reliance’s giant new solar factories, also in Jamnagar, a location where the company plans to make green energy investments of over $80 billion.
Co-Founder and CEO of Addverb Technologies Sangeet Kumar, said, “With this investment, Reliance will hold around 54 per cent stake in Addverb. They become the largest shareholder in the company. Reliance was already one of our esteemed clients, with whom we had co-created and delivered highly automated warehouses for their Jio-Mart grocery business. The comfort level and the trust factor were already in place, which led to this association.”
Kumar said Addverb is looking for land around Delhi as it is expecting to build the world’s largest robot-making factory. It also wants to accelerate expansion in Europe and the U.S. The startup already has subsidiaries in Singapore, the Netherlands and Australia.
Discussion about this post