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Warehouse Automation investments exploding Hot on the heels of Exotec's massive $335m fundraising in Jan 2022, RightHand Robotics have picked up $66m in Feb 2022. Investors included existing shareholders and Thomas H Lee Partners and Softbank Vision Fund. Both THL and Softbank have invested heavily in the warehouse automation and robotics space for some time, most recently with their combined deal bringing AutoStore to public markets in 2021. Softbank also sold Boston Dynamics and listed Berkshire Grey via a SPAC deal in 2021 whilst THL invested in Fortna and other US system integrators. e-Commerce is the common thread The common thread among the...

AUTOSTORE: ROCKET RESULTS! AutoStore (website) announced their 4th quarter results on Feb 17th, 2021 and what a rocket it was with c.80% year on year revenue increase to $327.6m in FY21. Whilst this was super impressive, it should be contextualised with a close to flat development between 2019 and 2020, much due to pandemic disruption. Karl Lier (LinkedIn), CEO & President at AutoStore Markets appeared to like what AutoStore reported and the share (Euronext link) quickly gained a cautious 2.25% on the day having touched a high of NOK31. Euronext screenshot Order bookings in the quarter was $198.4m, up 125.9% on 4Q20...

This blog post outlines STIQs view of the new product releases in Ocado's January 2022 Re:imagined event and includes comments from STIQs presentation with Credit Suisse (equity research team) on January 31st, 2022. Agree? Disagree? We invite your comments on this blog post!   On Wednesday January 26th, 2022, Ocado Group updated the world on some of its more recent developments. These broadly fell into hardware and software developments: Hardware 600 Series Bot On Grid Robotic Pick Automated Frame Load Software Swift Router Orbit Flex 600 Series Bot The new upgraded bot featured a 3D printed chassis, what STIQ believe to be wireless charging plate...

Final day. We did a walkthrough 360 video from the Innovation Lab and the Startup Zone on the lower floor. The quality is not super, but you can drag and get the view you want here: The final day is generally quite busy up to mid day and then quietens down from there.  Ingenico's Finger Robot We typically pick up a little robot that is standing in a corner doing something that no-one really picks up. Ingenico's finger robot is one of these - an articulated arm robot that is used to demonstrate how easy it is to use Ingenico's new...

The Monday is often considered the business day, when the larger budget buyers come out to play. Most exhibitors appeared sanguine about the level of visitor traffic versus quality as usual. It is not inconceivable that NRF 2022 has taken a hit in visit traffic, many thanks to the pandemic. One of the longest queues at NRF during all our visits have been to Starbucks. Many coffee connoisseurs criticize Starbucks for the apparent lack of coffee in the drinks they serve. However, as the queue is evidence of - these beverages are very popular in the US... but... Starbucks also sell gift...