According to two persons familiar with the subject, Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, the retail arm of Reliance Industries Ltd, is expected to buy a minority share in warehouse robotics company Addverb Technologies Pvt. Ltd for approximately ₹300 crores.
According to the people cited above, Addverb Technologies will be valued at $1,590-1,660 crore if the purchase goes through.
Former Asian Paints executives Satish Shukla, Sangeet Kumar, Prateek Jain, Bir Singh, Amit Kumar, and Neeraj Sharma formed Addverb Technologies in 2016. By integrating robots and warehouse automation, the company claims that its technologies enhance space utilization in warehouses and factories. E-commerce, health, aviation, retail, food, fashion, third-party logistics, medicines, and auto parts are among the industries it serves.
According to VCCEdge, the data intelligence platform of VCCircle, Addverb Technologies, which counts Amazon, Flipkart, ITC, and Coca-Cola among its clients, raised more than $10 million in two tranches from Jalaj Ashwin Dani, co-promoter of Asian Paints, in 2017 and 2019.
Moneycontrol announced that the company had begun talks with institutional investors to fund $80-120 million. The net revenues of Addverb Technologies increased to ₹111.2 crores in the fiscal year ending March 2020, up from ₹64.9 crores the previous year.
This year, Reliance has made many acquisitions through its retail division. It paid an unknown sum to MAS Brands, a Sri Lanka-based MAS Holdings unit, for retail lingerie companies under the ‘Amante’ brand. In October, Reliance Retail acquired a 52% ownership in India’s oldest fashion business, Ritu Kumar. In the same month, it acquired a large share in Manish Malhotra’s desi couture label. In July, it paid ₹5,713 crores for local search engine platform Just Dial Ltd in a preferential allotment of shares and open offer.
Last year, US-based private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, KKR & Co., Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Co., and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority assisted Reliance Retail raise approximately $6.4 billion in external funding.
