Autonomous forklift maker Seegrid is searching for acquisitions to help it keep up with a market that’s been growing fast as manufacturers and retailers scramble to automate their facilities to keep up with the e-commerce demand. “We’re on the hunt now for several,” CEO Jim Rock told Forbes. “We’re looking to roll up our industry and consolidate the market globally.”
Rock says he is searching for companies in both hardware and software, including analytics, that could be adjacent to its business in giant, industrial robots that can move pallets holding thousands of pounds worth of goods. He declined to say if he has any deals in the works currently. The Pittsburgh-based company acquired Box Robotics, which makes high-definition maps and three-dimensional Lidar, for an undisclosed amount last October.
Seegrid’s acquisition search is the latest sign of the increasingly hot market for industrial robots that can improve efficiency and speed at factories and warehouses. In February, Locus Robotics reached a $1 billion valuation, while Berkshire Grey announced that it would go public in a SPAC deal that could value the company at $2.7 billion. As the bigger players get bigger, consolidation seems inevitable.
“It’s the wild west right now in the robotics business,” Rock says.
Seegrid’s self-driving pallet truck has a capacity of 8,000 pounds
Founded in 2003 as a spinout from Carnegie Mellon – one of its founders is CMU robotics researcher Hans Moravec – and majority owned by Giant Eagle, Seegrid has been growing fast over the past years. Its revenue, which doubled last year, is now above $70 million. Unlike many other robotics operations, Seegrid is profitable, Rock says. The company has raised a total of $152 million at a valuation of $450 million, according to venture-capital database PitchBook.
Rock, who is 52 and the former president of Vocollect Healthcare (now part of Honeywell), joined the company as CEO in September 2014 after a dispute between Seegrid’s former CEO and Giant Eagle left the company leaderless. Seegrid subsequently went through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
Since then, autonomous forklifts are having a moment. The underlying technologies, such as sensors, have become more affordable, while computing power is no longer an obstacle. Meanwhile, the demand from warehouses has increased as online shoppers demand speedy deliveries.
Last year, Seegrid sold 500 of its autonomous forklifts to customers that include the U.S. Postal Service, Whirlpool and Amazon. Its robots use stereo cameras and 3D perception technology to navigate, and cost $150,000 and up. Those sales are a speck compared to the market for forklifts, which count 10 million in operation and 1.6 million sold each year, Rock says. “It’s not so much the here-and-now revenues, but what the opportunity is five years out,” he says. “We’re just scratching the surface.”
The move to e-commerce and push for ever-faster deliveries has triggered something of an arms race to develop better and more efficient robots of all types. Those trends accelerated during Covid-19 as consumers who previously didn’t order online turned to e-commerce, while those who already shopped online ordered more stuff.
“While the pandemic is a horrible event for all of us, it highlighted the supply-chain gaps and shortcomings,” Rock says. “The investment in upgrading facilities and capabilities globally is out of control right now.
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