Amazon's powerful rival is online! Unicorn company Locus Robotics is valued at $1 billion

Locus Robotics, one of the largest makers of industrial robots , said it has raised $150 million in a round led by Tiger Global and Bond at a valuation of $1 billion as e-commerce booms .

"We are excited about this unicorn valuation outcome , " said CEO Rick Faulk . " In today's world , it 's very rare to have a share in this space . "

Locus manufactures self-driving robots, called " LocusBots," that can replace workers in warehouses to pick items . Falk said Locus Robotics' revenue is between $10 million and $100 million, and is growing so fast that it could reach $100 million in a few years .

Locus currently has around 4,000 robots in the field, with more than 40 customers, including shipping giant DHL and health and beauty retailer Boots UK. Together, these partners have picked up more than 300 million robots, including 70 million during the recent holiday season.

“The industry has operated the same way for 50 years, and it worked, ” Faulk said . “Now they know they need automation to survive. ”

Locus Robotics was spun off from third-party logistics company Quiet Logistics in 2014 after Amazon acquired Kiva Systems and stopped selling its robots to companies like Quiet that deployed them in e-commerce. Faulk, a 71-year-old serial entrepreneur who previously led three successful tech companies, took over as CEO of Locus Robotics from co - founder Bruce Welty in 2016 .

Amazon’s acquisition of Kiva set off an arms race to develop better , more efficient robots that can handle warehouse operations that collapsed as e-commerce exploded . The push for automation to improve efficiency and handle growing demand and compete with Amazon has only increased during the pandemic . Locus’ competitors include Fetch Robotics and GreyOrange, among other robotics companies.

Faulk said that in the past six months, online ordering has grown from 11% to 16% of total business , which puts pressure on operators to increase automation. According to Faulk , about 95% of warehouses still maintain manual operation management, packaging and other processes . But the use of robots can double or even triple productivity with nearly 100% accuracy . And at present, the Amazon effect is indeed driving the development of the industry.

In a sign of how hot the space has become, Locus’ valuation has nearly tripled in just eight months from $361 million in March , according to venture capital database PitchBook. Locus has now raised more than $260 million.

With the new funding, the company intends to expand its global operations into Asia and continue to invest in research and development to add new features. The company already offers real-time data visualization capabilities to track warehouse operations on an iPhone or wearable technology, and plans to continue to increase these capabilities through artificial intelligence and machine learning.

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