INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The 2018 Holiday shopping season was the biggest on record for e-commerce, with nearly$126 billionin online sales
But as e-commerce continues to expand, the demand for warehouse workers is growing faster than thelabor supplyand creating an increased need
for automation.
Given its dominance in e-commerce and the massive scale of its business, there no surprise that Amazon was one of the first
companies to supplement their human workforce withrobotics
Since the acquisition of Kiva in 2012, a growing army ofrobotsperforms an increasing variety of tasks at Amazon facilities
However, those tasks remain limited in their ability to displace their human counterparts entirely.
Today, robotics are more affordable to a
broader array of companies, thanks to lower cost components, and advancements in technology have paved the way for the rise of the
collaborative robot or &cobot&.
inVia Robotics warehouse robots
Cobots are more precise and increasingly flexible with advanced sensor
technology, AI, Lidar/Radar, GPS, and connectivity
Machine learning has also made cobots more versatile—not just in their hardware, but in software that facilitates adaptation to a broad
And because sensor-rich robots can adapt to a variety of new challenges on the fly, we see more use cases for real-world application.
Don&t
expect a severe shift to collaborative robots — we are still in the early innings
The global industrial robot market, dominated by the &Big 4& (Kuka, ABB, Fanuc, and Yaskawa) was valued at more than $15 billion in 2017,
while the market for cobots reached only$287 million
However, the digital transformation of warehouses presents a tremendous market opportunity for new companies to create value.
We draw
connections to the shift we saw from legacy software to SaaS, where traditional sales and business models switched to recurring revenue
streams and cloud-based subscription services
By combining domain-specific go-to-market with robust software management platforms, the next generation ofroboticscompanies has the
opportunity to avoid long integrator-led sales cycles and become highly sticky over time, much like the early SaaS providers.
6 River
Systems robots lead workers to items they need to get from a warehouse shelf.
Additionally, collaborativerobotictechnology allowsrobotsto
augment human labor, lowering the barriers to entry, while still providing clear payback arguments around efficiency
Like the shift to cloud software, best-in-class platforms are now available to the masses without significant upfront investment in
infrastructure.
We believe that co-bots will unlock market verticals traditionally underserved by robotics, such as logistics, food, and
Companies that offer full-service solutions to these sectors provide attractive opportunities to build value
For example, 6 River Systems — whose cobots, known as Chucks, use cloud software to coordinate warehouse tasks and work side-by-side with
human employees — are changing how we think about the human-robot dynamic.
Cobalt Robotics, in the security vertical, allows human
security guards to remotely monitor offices, creating cost savings for the employer, and efficiencies for the security guard
And other companies like RightHand Robotics, inVia Robotics, Starship are poised to replace human labor in some commercial settings.
The
rapid innovation in this industry promises to bring efficiency and growth to countless sectors in coming years
Robotics programs at esteemed universities such as MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Georgia Tech are churning out a pool of world-class
entrepreneurs who are not only seizing a timely—and hopefully profitable opportunity—but boldly advancing the industry.
To quote my
fellow partner at Menlo Ventures, Matt Murphy, &We are entering a golden era ofrobotics, whereroboticswill become mainstream, drive huge
efficiencies, and in some cases make the impossible possible.&
