Zebra Technologies to acquire Fetch Robotics for $290M

Zebra Technologies will acquire autonomous mobile robot (AMR) maker Fetch Robotics for $290 million.

Fetch’s fleet is used for optimized picking in fulfillment centres and distribution centres, just-in-time material delivery in manufacturing facilities and automating manual material movement.

“Our goal is to give robots and people the opportunity to do their very best work,” says Bill Burns, chief product and solutions officer, Zebra Technologies, in a statement. “This acquisition is a continuation of what we expect to be a series of innovations that reflect our commitment to creating solutions that help our customers improve their operations through robotics.”

Fetch, currently a Zebra Ventures portfolio company, is in an early-rapid growth phase, generating annualized run-rate sales of approximately $10 million.

Zebra expects to fund the purchase price – for the 95 per cent of the business it does not already own – with cash on hand.

“The acquisition of Fetch Robotics will accelerate our Enterprise Asset Intelligence vision and growth in intelligent industrial automation by embracing new modes of empowering workflows and helping our customers operate more efficiently in increasingly automated, data-powered environments,” says Anders Gustafsson, chief executive officer of Zebra Technologies.

“This move will also extend our ongoing commitment to optimize the supply chain from the point of production to the point of consumption. We are excited to welcome the Fetch team to the Zebra family.”

In addition to Fetch Robotics’ broad portfolio of AMRs, it offers cloud-based enterprise software FetchCore as the foundational platform for deploying and fully integrating a broad range of automated workflows into manufacturing and warehouse operations and providing insights into facilities through machine learning on AMR sensor data.

Zebra’s focus on robotics automation combines workflow solutions for human workers, including current Zebra offerings such as FulfillmentEdge and SmartSight, with Fetch Robotics’ solutions.

“The Fetch team is excited to join Zebra and accelerate the adoption of flexible automation through AMRs and our cloud-based robotics platform,” says Melonee Wise, chief executive officer of Fetch Robotics.

“By helping customers dynamically optimize and holistically orchestrate their fulfillment, distribution and manufacturing operations, together we help enable their ability to stay ahead of growing demand, minimize delivery times and address shrinking labour pools.”

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021.