Mithril, BlackRock invest $110m in Singapore’s GreyOrange
Mithril Capital, a VC firm launched by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, and BlackRock have provided USD 110m in growth funding to Singapore and US-based robotics player GreyOrange.
Mithril led a USD 140m Series C investment in 2018 that was called the largest-ever round in the industrial robotics space. That round also featured India’s Blume Ventures as well as Binny Binsal, co-founder of Indian e-commerce leader Flipkart.
GreyOrange specialises in flexible, intuitive, and scalable robotics services for the e-commerce supply chain, from factories to warehouses and fulfilment centres. Flipkart is a client, as is Myntra, Indonesia’s postal service Pos Indonesia, and global logistics player Kerry Logistics.
The investment follows reports in April last year that GreyOrange was considering a US IPO at a valuation of up to USD 1.7bn. The company was said to be in talks with underwriters about listing as soon as early 2022.
“We’re firmly focused on how we can deliver on surging demand from our customers as quickly and efficiently as possible,” GreyOrange CEO Samay Kohli told TechCrunch after the latest investment. “An IPO is certainly a viable option to make that happen in the future.”
GreyOrange was founded in 2011 and Blume committed USD 500,000 in seed funding the following year, returning for a USD 8.9m Series A round in 2014 along with Tiger Global Management. Both firms contributed another USD 30m in Series B funding in 2016.
Pandemic-driven trends around the rise of e-commerce and the reordering of global supply chains have increasingly brought global institutional investors into logistics technology. Sector specialists note that the winners in this space will understand the needs of new-economy demand and anticipate hyperlocal operational pitfalls.
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