The French firm Keensight Capital has recently acquired a minority stake in the Spanish company ASTI Mobile Robotics. This company is immersed in the industrial robotics and Industry 4.0 sector, offering automated intralogistics solutions.
The mobile robotics sector has confirmed few sales transactions, but they have been large in volume. Three of them alone have accumulated a total of approximately USD 1 million.
Headquartered in Burgos with several offices in France, ASTI Mobile Robotics provides automated intralogistics solutions for large manufacturing companies. This division of the ASTI Technologies Group offers solutions that optimise productivity, improve production processes and reduce operating costs.
We highlight the company's specialisation in Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) engineering. Driven by structural trends such as automation and industrial robotisation, AGVs are a cornerstone of Industry 4.0 and this market is expected to grow by double digits over the next five years.
ASTI Mobile Robotics has 218 employees serving companies in 17 countries around the world. The company has experienced strong growth with a compound annual growth rate of 53% since 2014 and 75% of its revenues have been generated outside Spain.
On 5 February 2019 we learned of the acquisition of a minority shareholding of ASTI by Keensight Capital. We talked about a firm of private equity French company that has become one of Europe's leading providers of expansion capital. This agreement, the amounts of which are not known, has been made to support the growth of the Spanish company.
After observing this operation, we decided to look at the mobile robotics sector. This is a recent and growing sector and has therefore not moved much in terms of our area of expertise. Corporate Finance refers.
We have prepared this analysis of sale of companieswith the most outstanding operation in the sector in each of the last years.
Founded in 2016, Endeavor Robotics is a robotics company focused on defence, public safety and industrial markets. It has an established leadership team with decades of experience in the mobile robot industry. For more than 15 years, with deployments around the world, operations in conflict areas and in response to natural disasters, Endeavor Robotics has specialised in providing adaptive robotics.
Formerly known as iRobot Defence & Security, Endeavor has shipped more than 7,000 motor vehicles in more than 55 countries. Its robots have been deployed in numerous applications, including police and SWAT teams and in nuclear power and industrial plants.
On 11 February 2019 it was confirmed the sale of the company of Bedford (Massachusetts) to FLIR Systems. The amount of the transaction amounted to 385 million in cash.
FLIR Systems designs, manufactures and markets technology solutions that focus on infrared imaging systems and infrared cameras.
"The acquisition of Endeavor Robotics has positioned FLIR as a leading provider of unmanned solutions and advances our strategy," said Jim Cannon, president and CEO of FLIR. "Endeavor's push with the U.S. Department of Defense and other law enforcement agencies provides us with an important opportunity to engage in long-term franchise programmes and will help us generate growth. for the company.
As the name suggests, Mobile Industrial Robots is a manufacturer of collaborative mobile robots (AMR) based in Odense, Denmark. They are dedicated to developing safe, flexible and easy-to-use robots to help companies increase the efficiency of their operations. Its autonomous robots are a new generation of advanced mobile robots, offering a quick return on investmentoften with a repayment period of less than one year.
Mobile Industrial Robots was very profitable in 2017, with a annual income of $12 millionmore than three times the revenues of 2016. In addition, in the first quarter of 2018 it had sales of USD 5 million.
Its success was such that on 25 April 2018 the company was acquired by Teradyne. The deal was priced at $148 million net plus $124 million if certain performance targets are met, extending to 2020.
"Joining Teradyne allows us to advance our engineering and development investments to deliver greater value to our customers and further expand our leadership in the autonomous industrial mobile robot market," said Thomas Visti, CEO of Mobile Industrial Robotics.
Founded in 2013 and based in Boston, nuTonomy is a Boston-based company that focuses on in inventing software for autonomous vehicles and mobile robots. nuTonomy raised $19.6 million in funding from Highland Capital Partners, Samsung Ventures and Frontinalis Partners.
"Our mission has always been to radically improve the safety, efficiency and accessibility of transport around the world," said nuTonomy co-founder and CEO Karl Iagnemma.
On October 24, 2017 Delphi announced the purchase of nuTonomy for 450 million dollars400 in cash and 50 on the basis of future returns.
The central idea behind this purchase was to accelerate the development of autonomous vehicles with Delphi. Delphi's chief technology officer, Glen De Vos, pointed out that there was a possibility of winning a significant advantage in intellectual property and engineering talent with the purchase of the company.
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