Unbox Robotics, an early stage startup from the maiden cohort of Entrepreneur First, received its first round of funding of $ 550,000 led by CIIE.CO & Arali Ventures. Existing investors Entrepreneur First (EF) and SOSV also participated in this round. Unbox Robotics is co-founded by Pramod Ghadge, Shahid Memon through the Entrepreneur First program. The startup is building a logistics automation system that could enable logistics players to automate and improve their operations on-demand with limited footprint and capital. This investment will be towards a robotics solution for parcel sortation in warehouses. This will be useful for e-commerce companies and other online shopping portals. The Robotics system is powered by a strong AI software that helps logistics and e-commerce companies efficiently sort parcels with a higher throughput using only half the space of currently available sortation systems.
Speaking about the funding, Esha Tiwary – General Manager of Entrepreneur First in India, said, “Unbox Robotics is a testimony to EF’s quest of investing in exceptional individuals who have the potential to build ambitious tech companies. We are extremely proud of these co-founders from our maiden cohort in India, and they are testament to the high quality of potential entrepreneurs that exist in the country. Through EF, we are bridging the gap between the ambitious individuals who don’t have a co-founder yet, and relevant investors.”
“Evidently, there are problems with the current traditional sortation system. Especially in India, owing to the volatility and volume of parcels, inflexibility and space constraints are the bottlenecks for warehouses. I congratulate Pramod & Shahid who have utilized their domain knowledge to devise this robotic technology which is likely to disrupt the marketplace. This solution can change dynamics in the packaging industry”, said Vipul Patel, Seed Investments CIIE.
Pramod had a stint with an ecommerce company, where he was responsible for implementing robotics and automation in warehouses & distribution centers. Incidentally, Shahid Memon who is the Co-Founder & CTO, has previously built a robotics startup.
“In my earlier role, I observed that the existing warehouse automation solutions were inefficient in terms of space utilization, installation time, and capital involved. We started Unbox Robotics to eliminate these inefficiencies. Shahid and I looked at every step of the process in the warehouses with a magnifying glass. Our eye to detail, revealed immense scope for improvements and gave shape to our first solution”, said Pramod Ghadge, Co-Founder & CEO, Unbox Robotics.
India, an emerging hub for e-commerce, has shipped out more than 1.5 billion parcels in 2018-19. The warehousing sortation solution market is poised to hit $20bn by 2023 globally. With the advent of automation in warehouses and adoption of picking up, there is an evident need for a robotics-based sortation system which is efficient both operationally & financially for most of the logistics & warehousing companies.
“Unbox Robotics solution brings a generational shift in supply chain automation solutions. Their new-age flexible robotic sorting solution can enable automation of the smallest fulfilment center in the customer’s network; significantly enhancing productivity and cost advantages. Domain and tech capabilities apart, Pramod and Shahid’s obsession for customer success is one of the main reasons for Arali to bet on Unbox Robotics”, said Arun Raghavan, Co-founder and Partner, Arali Ventures.