Locus Robotics joins the unicorn club
Latest funding round takes warehouse robotics provider to a $1 billion valuation
Locus Robotics has announced $150 million in its latest funding round, which takes it to a current valuation of $1 billion.
The warehouse robotics company and latest logistics technology unicorn has said that it will use the cash to push market growth and on research and development for its warehouse technology solution.
This latest round is the company’s Series E round and much larger than its prior round, which raised $40 million.
This funding is led by Tiger Global Management and BOND. The former is an investment firm that focuses on private and public companies in the global Internet, software, consumer, and payments industries. It has invested in several major names in e-commerce and transportation, including JD.com, Meituan, Flipkart, Despegar, Ola and DiDi. BOND is a global technology investment firm that also includes Instacart and JD.com amongst its prior investments, as well as Uber, and Waze.
Locus said in a release that is currently has more than 40 customers including CEVA Logistics, DHL, Material Bank, Boots UK, GEODIS, Port Logistics Group, Verst Logistics, Radial. However, it is still early on in its growth and will want to expand rapidly as it noted that its current client base utilises their robots in a little over 80 warehouses around the world and that 70 million of the 300 million units it has estimated to have picked via its solution were done during the most recent holiday season.
“The logistics industry is facing huge challenges as it struggles to cope with rapid increases in demand, and at the same time severe labor shortages,” said Ash Sharma, Managing Director at Interact Analysis, a market research firm covering the intelligent automation sector. “Warehouses are massively under-penetrated today, but increasingly operators are seeing the huge benefits that warehouse robotics such as the Locus solution can bring. As a result, we expect that over a million warehouse robots will be installed over the next four years and the number of warehouses using them will grow ten-fold.”
“This new round of funding marks an important inflection point for Locus Robotics,” said Rick Faulk, CEO of Locus Robotics. “Warehouses facing ongoing labor shortages and exploding volumes, are looking for flexible, intelligent automation to improve productivity and grow their operations. Locus is uniquely positioned to drive digital transformation in this enormous global market.”
“Locus’s innovative mix of proven technology, flexible design, and seamless scalability makes it an ideal choice to lead the digital transformation of the warehouse,” said Griffin Schroeder, Partner at Tiger Global. “Facing rapidly growing ecommerce volumes, rising labor costs, and increasingly demanding customers, warehouse operators are seeking an automation solution that is flexible, scalable, and just works.”
“The Locus solution unlocks substantial productivity gains, while significantly lowering expenses, improving employee morale, and providing customers with unmatched visibility into warehouse operations,” said Jay Simons, a general partner at BOND. “The platform is powerful enough to meet – and exceed – warehouse operators’ needs today, tomorrow, and in the months and years to come.”