Deal focus: Telexistence’s nimble robots target retail, logistics

Japan’s Telexistence makes robots that can squeeze behind the shelves in a small convenience store, differentiate between the thousands of items that need to be placed, and, according to the company, handle them with 98% accuracy. It’s currently rolling them out to 300 locations of FamilyMart, a local chain, with a subscription-based model that is expected to lower economic barriers for customers.

Monoful, the Japanese technology-focused VC unit of logistics giant GLP, has been tracking the company since 2019 and participated in a Series A of undisclosed size that year. This interest came with an understanding that after retail, logistics would be the company’s next growth area.

“We’ve seen a lot of robotics start-ups in logistics, but none of them have achieved this level of detail and accuracy. Many robots can move pallets from A to B and put boxes on a shelf. But there haven’t been any that can pick up one stick of lipstick or a can of Coke from a shelf and put it in another place,” said Yosuke Fujioka, head of funds management at GLP Japan and president of Monoful.

“If you look in any [shopping] market, there’s no single robot that can handle all those different kinds of products and place them with very accurate motions. This is the only one that we have found. There are already robotics solutions for gigantic warehouses, but for last-mile pick-and-packing operations, there are not many solutions.”

Monoful was set up in 2017 as Japan became one of GLP’s largest markets; the parent has 170 buildings and 240 customers in the country. A debut fund – Monoful Venture Partners – launched last year with a target of JPY15bn (USD 108.5m) and hit a first close of JPY 13bn last November with support from SMBC Nikko Securities, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Toppan Printing, Keio Corporation, Sun Asterisk, and GLP.

The fund led the first tranche of a USD 170m Series B round for Telexistence that closed last week when SoftBank Group provided the entirety of the second tranche. Other investors include Foxconn, Airbus, and Globis Capital Partners. Formal expansion programmes have been inked with SoftBank (entering North America) and Foxconn (developing remote control systems).

Telexistence makes a feature of the virtual reality controls it’s developing with Foxconn. Indeed, the word “telexistence” refers to the idea of using sensory interfaces in remote robot operation and a company mission statement about “expanding the presence of human beings.” But the targeted commercial operations are decidedly pedestrian.

The first move into logistics is expected to come next year, with an unnamed local dry goods and cold chain operator (not GLP) already committed to the subscription service. “If you look at Amazon or other e-commerce companies, they hire a lot of people on site. Imagine if we can replace that labour force with robots. That would be a huge game changer for the logistics industry,” Fujioka said.

The confidence speaks to the healthy valuation of approximately USD 635m Telexistence received on its latest round. As a tech segment with a unique real assets component, robotics valuations can be nuanced. But Telexistence has only one customer in retail and has yet to deploy equipment in logistics. Is there a risk it’s being overpriced?

“I wouldn’t say it’s too high for the size of the company,” said Tetsuya Hayashiguchi, head of start-up investments at Monoful.

“For general robotics as a whole in Japan, there are a number of companies that have raised large sums. Some have showed successful growth, and some have not. All that matters is how well the management team can execute what is being planned and how they can implement that in the revenue stream. We think Telexistence has that capability.”

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Technology
• Industrials
• Consumer
• Early-stage
• Japan
• Softbank
• Foxconn Technology Group
• Globis Capital Partners
• GLP
• robotics
• Logistics