In a major development, Japan's largest conglomerate Mitsubishi is considering acquiring a minority stake in GreyOrange Robotics, a multinational technology company based out of Singapore and Gurgaon that designs, manufactures and deploys advanced robotics systems for automation at distribution and fulfillment centers.
According to a news report in the Economic Times (ET), Mitsubishi is contemplating making an investment of less than $20 million, which could also witness the participation of GreyOrange's existing backer Tiger Global. The report also revealed that the Japanese biggie is structuring the investment through a convertible note which could result in valuing the robotics company from anywhere between $300 million to $500million.
A potential investment through a convertible note could help Grey Orange in overcoming its valuation issues. For the uninitiated, a convertible note is a form of short-term debt that converts into equity, typically in conjunction with a future financing round, primarily delaying final valuation till the next round is raised.
Grey Orange has already raised around $30 million till now from VCs such as Blume Ventures and Tiger Global. It raised its last round in mid 2015. Since then, it has working on raising another round of funding, but valuation mismatch has resulted in an unnecessary delay in the same. Sources also informed ET that GreyOrange has had quite a good year so far with revenues of being projected to $40 million for the coming year.
Talking to ET, a source revealed that GreyOrange plans on raising a smaller round right now and then go for a larger round of financing somewhere by early next year. Mitsubishi is one of the clients of GreyOrange. Though headquartered in Singapore, GreyOrange also has offices in India, Hong Kong, Japan, Germany and Dubai. Besides that, it has a research and development centre in Gurgaon as well.
GreyOrange is currently competing in the warehousing automation space with companies such as Amazon's Kiva. It is in fact one of the rarest hardware startups to have risen out of India.
This development was first reported in Economic Times.
According to a news report in the Economic Times (ET), Mitsubishi is contemplating making an investment of less than $20 million, which could also witness the participation of GreyOrange's existing backer Tiger Global. The report also revealed that the Japanese biggie is structuring the investment through a convertible note which could result in valuing the robotics company from anywhere between $300 million to $500million.
A potential investment through a convertible note could help Grey Orange in overcoming its valuation issues. For the uninitiated, a convertible note is a form of short-term debt that converts into equity, typically in conjunction with a future financing round, primarily delaying final valuation till the next round is raised.
Grey Orange has already raised around $30 million till now from VCs such as Blume Ventures and Tiger Global. It raised its last round in mid 2015. Since then, it has working on raising another round of funding, but valuation mismatch has resulted in an unnecessary delay in the same. Sources also informed ET that GreyOrange has had quite a good year so far with revenues of being projected to $40 million for the coming year.
Talking to ET, a source revealed that GreyOrange plans on raising a smaller round right now and then go for a larger round of financing somewhere by early next year. Mitsubishi is one of the clients of GreyOrange. Though headquartered in Singapore, GreyOrange also has offices in India, Hong Kong, Japan, Germany and Dubai. Besides that, it has a research and development centre in Gurgaon as well.
GreyOrange is currently competing in the warehousing automation space with companies such as Amazon's Kiva. It is in fact one of the rarest hardware startups to have risen out of India.
This development was first reported in Economic Times.
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