France's Exotech raises $335 million in Series D round at $2 billion valuation

Exotech, which specialises in order preparation via its fleet of collaborative mobile robots has raised $335 million in a Series D round. With this raise, the company achieves a $2 billion valuation, and becomes France’s fourth unicorn in less than three weeks. The new funding will be used to continue the company’s deployments in Europe, Asia, and North America, as well as further develop its automation technology. In so much, exotech is looking to beef up the R&D department, quoting the desire to onboard at least 500 new engineers within the next three years. Since August 2015, exotech has raised $477 million

With the company’s flagship offer, the Skypod System, exotech utilises robots that can reach a height of just shy of 11 metres and provides e-commerce, grocery, retail, manufacturing, and 3PL sector companies, and their associated warehouse facilities with high-density inventory storage and retrieval capabilities.

“Following the most significant supply chain disruptions of the modern era, there’s only room left for innovation,” commented co-founder and CEO Romain Moulin. “While the entire logistics sector is fraught with uncertainty, one of the most prevalent challenges is ongoing labor shortages. Exotec pioneers a new path: elegant collaboration between human and robot workers that delivers warehouse productivity in a lasting, far more sustainable way.”

Exotech’s $335 million Series D round was led by the growth equity arm at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, with follow-on investments from 83North and Dell Technologies Capital.

“Exotec is well-positioned to seize the enormous warehouse automation market opportunity both because of its global presence and strong track record of success with industry-leading retailers and brands”, commented Goldman’s Christian Resch. “Exotec builds scalable solutions that are an accelerant for change and supports business growth despite market disruptions.”