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The warehouse automated solution vertical - Robotic As A Service (RaaS) of the Pune-based Affordable Robotic & Automation (ARAPL), plans to generate $4-6 million in FY24 as it enters the first year of business with a majority of revenues coming from the US market, revealed Robinson Philipose, CEO- RaaS, ARAPL, during an interaction with Mobility Outlook. The RaaS division of the business was launched in 2021, leveraging the parent company's expertise in automation.
Currently, the company has clients in the United States, India, and Australia. According to Philipose, the ticket size in India is much smaller than in the US market, with each robot costing around INR 25 lakh. He said that the reason for the lower price of the robot is that Indian companies are looking for a lower-cost solution because the robots have a payback time of two years, and labour in the country is cheap, whereas the RoI in the US is six months.
In India, the company supplies its AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) to Tata 1MG, while in the United States, Toyota Lift Northwest has joined as a channel partner with 22 distributors. 'We are optimistic about the US market and plan to expand our presence to 25 States in FY24,' said the CEO.
Besides this, the company will also enter into the Australian market in FY24. Beyond these markets, it might also expand its presence to the Middle East and the European markets.
The company initially raised $1 million, while in January 2022, it raised another $0.7 million. The CEO noted that these funds were utilised for the R&D of software and hardware, including the development of Swarm Robotics AI, in which interconnected robots form a swarm of robots.
The company plans to raise another $1 million, which will go into sales and marketing, said Philipose. He noted that the funds will be utilised in developing the vendor base in the US and participating in marketing shows to increase the company’s visibility. However, he noted that while for this year, the funds will majorly be utilised to sustain operation for a stable business, the company aims to invest 7% of its revenues into R&D.
Speaking on R&D, he said the company aims to channelise its R&D into the software development and technology sector in the longer run. While at present, the company provides the software and the hardware services for the warehouse automation solution, Philipose stated that when the demand for AGVs goes beyond 10,000 per year, ARAPL aims to outsource the vehicles.
He said, “Beyond a tipping point, manufacturing doesn't make sense. We will continue harnessing our energies into the technology sector to understand and develop how the AGV can be put to use.”
The CEO believes that while the ecosystem for hardware is going to be huge, with a CAGR of around 43%, there will be a need to improve the software part as well and make it smarter.
Automation Being The Forte
ARAPL started its journey in 2005 as a turnkey automation solution provider. Besides the RaaS vertical, the company has two more verticals- automation and parking solutions.
Within the automation business under which it provides automated welding lines for chassis and BiW, the company claims to be nominated as a Tier-1 supplier to the likes of Tata Motors and Mahindra. Going forward, the company plans to venture into aviation welding while expanding its capabilities in the automotive space with EV battery welding lines, said Mukund Shah, CEO, ARAPL.
He noted that as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has been awarded an order book of 1,000 helicopters, ARAPL aims to provide automated welding assembly lines for these helicopters. While the initial work in this area will take place in FY24, as HAL prepares to open a new factory in FY25, Shah predicts that major advances in aviation automation will take place in FY25. In addition, Shah stated that the company intends to assist HAL and Boeing with automation for aircraft manufacturing in FY25.
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Meanwhile, the company plans to start automated welding line for EV battery in the second half of FY24 and scale up the business in FY25, said the CEO. He added that both the advancements in the field will aid the business vertical to double its revenues in FY25 compared to FY23.
A similar target to double the revenues for the next two years has been set up for the parking solution business as well, Shah added. The automated parking solution vertical was started in 2017 with an initial capacity of 200 vehicles at a given site, while at present, the company provides solutions for a maximum of 400 vehicles with options for setups- chess, stack, tower parking and puzzle parking across 15 sites.
Now though, the company is working on a project for 1,000 cars which will be its biggest automated parking solution and will aid in achieving its target, the CEO added.
ARAPL claims to have experienced a 40% growth in revenue, reaching INR 11337.24 lakh in FY 2023 compared to INR 8123.28 lakh in FY 2022. Now with the growth in automated parking solutions and automated welding line solution, it plans for a 100% growth for coming three years that is for FY24 it will be around INR 200 crore and for FY25 it will be INR 400 crore, Shah concluded.
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