A news major fundraising of 294 million euros ($335 million) enables Exotec to become the 25th French unicorn and already the 4th to join this closed circle in 2022, after PayFit, Ankorstore and Qonto. This operation also allows Exotec, a manufacturer of order picking robots, to become the first French industrial unicorn.
Exotec raises 294 million euros
Exotec is a “provider of robotic solutions for warehouses” which was born in July 2015 in Croix in Hauts-de-France, near Lille. This new fundraising, led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, alongside Bpifrance, allows the French start-up to change size. Now valued at $2 billion, Exotec is part of the circle of French unicorns and aims to accelerate its international expansion.
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The start-up that is helping to reindustrialize the economy is on the rise. Dreaded by Amazon, the French Exotec plans to recruit 500 additional R&D engineers by 2025. Romain Moulin, CEO and co-founder of Exotec, estimates that in 2022, companies need “build adapted, efficient and agile supply chains, in order to rethink their logistics plans”. The solutions offered by Exotec are precisely designed to meet these key challenges.
The need to reindustrialize economies
With its robotic solutions, the company already has many prestigious customers worldwide, such as Uniqlo, Decathlon, Carrefour, Cdiscount, Gap and Geodis. On this subject, Jérôme Saillour, Logistics Transformation Manager at Decathlon, says that “Decathlon is proud to contribute to the development of French industrial know-how and ultimately intends to implement Exotec’s solution on other continents”.
Among the latest collaborations, we can quote Monoprix and the equipment of its zero-carbon warehouse in the Paris region. As Romain Moulin points out, Exotec takes the opposite view from Amazon by “promoting a collaborative approach between humans and robots, which increases warehouse productivity tenfold while improving working conditions”.
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought to light the fragility of supply chains and the need for companies to rethink them. The shortage of semiconductors is the best example that supports the need to relocate industrial production. Exotec is aware that the reindustrialization of economies is a priority for States, and intends back off.