Amazon Spurs Competition in Logistics Robots

This article first appeared on the BNEF mobile app and the Bloomberg Terminal.

  • DHL, Warsila, and Universal Logistics adopt warehouse robots
  • Shopify bought 6 River Systems for $450m in September

Amazon.com Inc.’s autonomous warehouse robots are one of the reasons it is so strong in logistics. Now, a new wave of startups are using autonomy technology like computer vision to offer flexible and collaborative warehouse robots to Amazon’s competitors.

Startups like Fetch Robotics Inc. and inVia Robotics offer new robots-as-a-service models to serve smaller warehouses. This eliminates upfront costs, a barrier for warehouse automation.

When Amazon acquired Kiva for $775 million in 2012, it left a dearth of robots suppliers. More recently a new cohort of warehouse robotics startups are emerging. In 2019 to date, industrial robots have raised over $1.6 million in VCPE and M&A markets.

As new business models and cheaper hardware propel robot costs downwards, BNEF expects the number of robotics startups to grow over the next 3-5 years.

Clients can find the report ‘BloombergNEF Technology Radar: The Warehouse Robots Edition’ on The Terminal or on web

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