Grocery delivery service Ocado agreed the $262m acquisition of US-based warehouse robotics technology provider Kindred Systems yesterday through a deal enabling internet group Tencent and internet technology conglomerate Alphabet to exit.
Kindred produces piece-picking robots equipped with artificial intelligence for use in fulfilling e-commerce orders in warehouses. It made a $16.2m net loss from $1.7m in revenue in 2019, and the all-cash transaction includes $4m that will go to employee shareholders.
The deal comes after $44m in funding for Kindred, which most recently secured $28m in a 2017 series B round led by Tencent and backed by Eclipse Ventures and First Round Capital. Its earlier investors had included Alphabet subsidiary GV, Data Collective and AME Cloud Ventures.
Marin Tchakarov, Kindred’s chief executive, said: “I am proud to see Kindred Systems and our brilliant team recognised by Ocado as a leader in robotic pick and place manipulation, and we are extremely excited to realise our next chapter as part of them.
“We have achieved very strong growth with our retail e-commerce fulfilment customers over the last three years, and the unique challenges presented in grocery fulfilment will bring an even richer learning environment, further expanding on both our technology and market solutions set.
“Benefitting from Ocado’s excellence in research, technology, product development and partnering will give Kindred Systems the opportunity to continue to grow and stay at the forefront of AI and machine learning automation and workforce collaboration.”
The acquisition was disclosed alongside Ocado’s pending purchase of Haddington Dynamics, a US-based producer of robotic arms, for $7m in cash and approximately $25m in Ocado shares. Haddington had not revealed any funding prior to the deal.
Photo courtesy of Kindred, Inc.
