GreyOrange – Beyond the future innovation
“I could draw a DC or an AC motor on paper very well, but looking at the motor of the ceiling fan, I couldn’t tell which one of those it was”
– Akash Gupta, Co-founder , GreyOrange
In the near future robotics will surely become more prevalent in human lives. But how do you do it? This is where firms that will introduce robots into our everyday lives come into play. The transformation is currently taking place, and the credit for it goes to entrepreneurs with small origins rather than giant enterprises. These firms have laid the groundwork for a burgeoning industry and are poised to become industry titans.
It’s unusual for an Indian-founded hardware company to produce high-tech products that involve not only software knowledge but also hardware, electrical, and mechanical engineering, and that are aimed at a worldwide market. This necessitates a high level of competence, not just the ability to imitate a Western concept.
GreyOrange Robotics is a first-of-its-kind enterprise for the Indian logistics industry, founded in 2009. It creates robots that can transport shelves filled with diverse products to a floor assistant, who scans a barcode to ensure the correct items are being delivered. The robot then transports the selected items to the shipping area, where personnel seal the packages for final delivery.
WHERE IT ALL STARTED
Nothing better exemplifies the term “modest beginning” than GreyOrange‘s beginning. Samay Kohli and Akash Gupta were two buddies a decade ago who also happened to be college seniors-juniors. Samay Kohli is the senior in this story, which began on the BITS Pilani campus. Both of them had a mutual interest in science and mathematics, which they indulged in through robotics.
At BITS’ Center for Robotics & Intelligent Systems, they were both members of the team that produced Acyut, India’s first indigenous humanoid robot. They earned a gold medal at the ROBOlympics (now RoboGames) in San Francisco in 2009, and they have since represented India in robotics events in 13 countries.
Exposure to international robotic contests, venues such as BITS’ Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, and an internship at C & C Technologies in the United States appear to have had a significant impact on their lives.
During their internship at C&C Technologies, a company that specializes in surveying and mapping, they were charged with developing a 400-square-foot small Disney park with everything automated and special effects. This was their first time developing a large-scale product. After these numerous exposures, the duo dabbled in the field of robotics instruction and founded Grey Orange in 2011 with an initial capital of Rs 5 lakh INR obtained from their personal savings during their internships in the US.
The team began teaching in colleges and institutions through Grey Orange, but quickly realized that managing teachers and developing curriculum was not their cup of tea. They moved into the service industry and finally created 3–4 white label products for other businesses. One of the items was an image processing project for C&C Technologies, where they had worked as interns during college. The pair saw the need to pivot and began looking for businesses in which they could both provide significant value and develop.
THE MAGIC BEHIND THE SUCCESS
Samay Kohli and Akash Gupta have been bonded for life by long hours of labor together, competitions, and partnered mentorships. They each had positions and skills that were well-understood inside their organizations. “I was always the person who went super deep into technology, while Samay (Kohli) was the person who liked defining more of the product part, defining overall business and things like that. ” Gupta said. The decision was easy. Kohli became CEO and Gupta became CTO.
After forming the company, the two went on to hire engineers, many of whom were recent graduates, because experienced experts in the field were hard to come by and expensive to hire for a start-up. One of GreyOrange’s first major projects was the implementation of a butler system for a warehouse. Essentially, a scissor lift system for warehouses that also included a safety, navigation, and communication system.
Making this “butler” from the ground up was a huge undertaking, and the inventors’ ambitions were equally as big. “At that point we had a dream to run 1,000 robots in a single warehouse. We couldn’t find any other language or stack which allowed so many agents running in a soft real-time system. Lack of a prototyping ecosystem in India created further problems and delays. We resorted to doing things in-house as we couldn’t be dependent on outside shops. ”Finally, after the initial prototype was released, the task of scaling became a difficulty, which took another 9 months. The project was completed three years after it was conceived. The business began on shaky ground. They were creating two items from the ground up. From design through software, hardware, prototyping, and scaling, we’ve got you covered. Needless to say, the first few years were spent establishing a name for the company and the high-quality products it offered. And eventually, this tenacity paid off. GreyOrange was propelled from the bottom of the rung to the top by the Butler and the Sorter, as they are affectionately known.
THE SUCCESS OF THE BRAND
In 2017, the two robots brought in 70% of the revenue from an international market and broke even in terms of spending to revenue. The company now offers six goods divided into two categories. The Butler and the Butler PickPal are examples of Goods-to-Person Systems. The second category is sortation systems, which include the Flexo, Cross Belt Sorter, and Pick-Put-To-Light, in addition to the Linear Sorter. GreyOrange is now recognised as a leader in the field of functional and industrial robots. Kohli remarked, “I think perseverance is one thing that has paid off wonderfully.” “I believe we’ve basically stayed focused on the same topic and not gotten diverted.”
DECODING THEIR THEORY
If we go back, the first connection with Flipkart, an established e-commerce operator, was the key cause for Grey Orange’s huge success, and this finally led to Tiger Global, the marquee investment firm, joining the company.
This highlights the critical need for collaborations between industry and innovators/startups; nevertheless, not everyone is capable of doing so. As the open innovation partner incubator, Forge focuses on assisting entrepreneurs developing ideas and solutions for industrial applications to efficiently collaborate with the industry. We believe that by doing so, startups will be able to take advantage of chances to address the strategic innovation priorities of larger firms, allowing them to accelerate their growth.
If you’re a startup founder, like the founders of Grey Orange, looking to gain a long-term competitive advantage and global prominence in technology, especially in futuristic domains with the greatest potential for disruption, it’s critical that your research, development, and application of these technologies is focused on engineering commercial solutions that address the needs of core industrial sectors. Automobiles, aircraft, defense, space, oil & gas, electricity, precise engineering, heavy machinery, and so on are some of the industrial areas you might choose from.
THE FUTURE OF THE ORGANIZATION
GreyOrange claims that their modern fulfillment solution has already provided more value and efficiency to the Active Ants fulfillment center in the Netherlands, and that it has already expanded its offering to the Belgian market in anticipation of increased eCommerce demand over the Christmas season. The expansion is the first step in a plan to increase efficiencies across many European warehouses. Through innovation, automation, and the deployment of robots, Active Ants provides warehousing services to eCommerce enterprises across Europe, enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of e-fulfillment.
For over 250 shops, Active Ants stores, packs, and distributes over 5 million annual orders. The GreyMatter operating system and Ranger MoveSmart robots work across the whole fulfillment cycle, from carton construction to initial product packaging to destination sorting, saving costs and speeding up delivery times for end consumers. The robots can adapt and scale to the needs of future Active Ants as a software solution, ensuring that consumers receive precise and efficient e-fulfillment services.
“End customers are demanding more from their eCommerce engagements,” says Jan Heijblom, sales manager at GreyOrange. “Our research shows that nearly half of consumers anticipate their online items to be delivered within two days. “”Customers will take their business elsewhere if orders are late, thus web stores and retail organizations can’t afford to fall behind when it comes to delivery timeframes. “”Active Ants can perform faster and more precise e-fulfillment services for clients thanks to GreyOrange’s multi-purpose robots, and they can modify their operations as market dynamics change and consumer expectations develop.”
“We’ve had enormous success in our Dutch warehouse, and we want to expand and reproduce that success in the Belgian market and beyond,” says Jean Lahaye, creator of Active Ants.
“With the GreyMatter operating system and the Ranger robot family, we are not limited to the current environment, but can scale and change solutions to meet the demands of our clients and prepare for the future of retail.”
CONCLUSION
While most of our Indian Startups have made services such as booking a cab or a hotel room more convenient, very few startups have come out successfully that involve industrial technologies and it is safe to say that GreyOrange of one of them
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