Atlanta robotics company GreyOrange is set to expand its footprint and create 300 jobs globally as supply chain delays continues to affect the economy.
Investments into Atlanta’s supply chain innovation sector have increased due to the effects of the pandemic. Demand for e-commerce products soared. At the same time, labor shortages caused supply chain backlogs, contributing to inflation spikes.
Retail enterprises turned to supply chain technology — from warehouse automation to updated software services — to cope with those challenges.
Atlanta, a legacy logistics hub, has a growing number of startup trying to solve supply chain delays. Earlier this month, warehousing and software startup Stord announced it raised an additional $120 million and plans to reach 1,000 employees. In January, supply chain innovator Verusen raised $25 million to grow its footprint and build out its AI-driven platform. Two warehousing robotics companies — Exotec and Mujin — opened their U.S. headquarters locally in the past year.
GreyOrange assists businesses competing against retail giants like Amazon by installing intelligent robots to automate warehouses, distribution and fulfillment centers.
Over the last five years, the company has been growing at a rate of 100%, which it expects to continue in the coming years amid workforce shortages, CEO Samay Kohli said. GreyOrange's clients tend to see increased employee retention, he said.
“Over the last six months, we've seen a change from where people used to think the labor shortage was a temporary phenomenon,” said Kohli. “What we are seeing is the view that, ‘Hey, they're not coming back.’”
GreyOrange's hiring announcement follows a $110 million financing round, primarily from technological investment firm Mithril Capital Management. Separate financing was provided by funds and accounts from investment management company BlackRock. Funds from the investment will go towards hires across customer support, sales, marketing, product and engineering.
GreyOrange is also increasing investments into product development, including its recently launched gStore, a mobile application that helps retail employees serve customers. Over the last six months, it has reached approximately 20 clients.
Over the last three years, the company has grown its U.S. customer base from two retailers to 30. Among the company’s most notable customers are Walmart, H&M, COS, Coupang and GXO Logistics.
There are three major U.S. retail brands that GreyOrange operates over 60% of their domestic volumes, said Kohli, who declined to identify the companies.
“Even at the rate that we're growing, we're not able to fulfill all the problems that customers are facing,” said Kohli. “[The pandemic] has been a massive accelerant, but it's also created a lot of pain for our customers.”
Founded in 2012 in Singapore, the company moved its U.S. headquarters to Atlanta in 2018 as it geared for an expansion goal of deploying over 20,000 robots across the country. Two years later, GreyOrange made Atlanta its global headquarters. The location was chosen for its connectivity provided by the international airport and tech talent from Georgia Tech’s Supply Chain and Logistics Institute.
The company currently has 70 full-time staff based in the metro-Atlanta area out of its approximately 150 U.S.-based employees. It is on track to make 50 U.S. hires by the end of this year. It did not state how many of those would be Atlanta hires.
