20 Things You Didn’t Know about Exotec
What do you know about robotics company Exotec? Chances are, you might be hearing about the company by name for the first time. However, that doesn’t mean that you don’t work for someone who uses their products. At the very least, you have probably purchased something from a company that uses their robotics to enhance their efficiency. If you’re interested in knowing more about how they integrate robotics with jobs that are done by human beings, all you have to do is keep reading. Here are 20 things about the company that will help you gain a better understanding of who they are and what they do.
1. They help warehouses do inventory
One of the main reasons that the company exists is to help warehouses do effective inventory. They use robotics that are capable of flying more than thirty feet above the warehouse floor, using advanced software to do inventory within the warehouse. It’s more than five times faster than doing inventory by hand and it frees up employees to do other important tasks such as keeping day-to-day operations going seamlessly. As a matter of fact, this is one of the premier reasons that the company is in business to begin with. To date, they have helped countless numbers of major corporations conduct warehouse inventory and in doing so, have prevented their employees from becoming tied down and such tedious tasks that require enormous amounts of time and take them away from their regular duties.
2. They also design robotics that can help with daily warehouse operations
In addition to designing robotics that are capable of taking warehouse inventory, they also have robots that are capable of helping human beings perform daily warehouse operations. For example, they have one that is designed specifically to pick products from the tallest warehouse shelves in order to allow orders to be filled. This prevents employees from being forced to climb up on a ladder multiple times throughout the course of the day in order to get access to these products, thereby making warehouse operations safer. It also speeds up operations because people aren’t being forced to climb ladders all day long in order to fulfill orders. Last but certainly not least, it allows employees to focus on actually fulfilling those orders as opposed to wasting their time scurrying up and down a ladder all day long. If you want to think of things in the long-term, it also potentially helps prevent injuries that are associated with going up and down a ladder multiple times a day, as this can be very hard on the needs of employees. When they don’t have to climb all the time, there’s a reduced risk for injury or standard wear and tear on joints as a direct result of these repetitive movements.
3. They’re environmentally conscious
The company is extremely environmentally conscious. In fact, they’ve been working on reducing their carbon footprint almost from the first day they were in business. These days, they’re expanding to help their clients reduce their carbon footprints as well, largely as a direct result of products that they design. For instance, warehouses that operate more efficiently because of their robotics can utilize less energy because they don’t have to keep every square inch of the warehouse lit as brightly when human beings can be concentrated in one area to check quality assurance and fulfill orders and the robots can be pulling items from other areas of the warehouse.
4. They don’t want to replace human workers, but help them
The company is always very quick to point out that the idea is not to replace human workers, but to help them do their jobs more effectively. Overall, the goal is to help them achieve more without putting them in as much danger. At the same time, they’re helping employees because they’re allowing them to focus on tasks that aren’t as menial. This allows for better health care and higher pay as opposed to working a dead-end job that doesn’t provide a living wage regardless of the number of hours worked.
5. All of their systems are modular
All of the robotic systems are modular so they can be deployed from start to finish in a matter of months. A company that has never used their robotics in the past can contact the company and then be up and running while actually utilizing those robotics within just a few months as opposed to building an entirely new facility that takes years to construct. The company is very good at making their systems work within the confines of the building that already exists as opposed to forcing their clients to build something completely new.
6. They can update their robotics through software
The company can also update all of their robots through routine software updates. In much the same way that you would update your smartphone, their robots can be updated and even adjusted in order to perform the necessary task at hand. Since everything is handled through software, there aren’t any concerns associated with a great deal of down time in order to update something.
7. They’ve produced more than 3,000 robots to date
The company certainly isn’t new at doing this type of thing. So far, they have manufactured and deployed more than 3,000 robots to major consumers in various parts of the world. That number is constantly growing, often by leaps and bounds. There’s no telling how many robots they will have deployed within the next 12 to 24 months.
8. They’ve achieved a global presence
You could easily say that the company has achieved a global presence because they are working with companies throughout North America, Europe and Asia. In addition, they’re always working on research and development as well as marketing in order to expand their business into additional areas where they haven’t previously had a presence.
9. They design their systems to perform
There’s no doubt about it, the company designs their systems to perform and they want them to perform flawlessly. As a result, they designed them to be redundant so that if one portion of a system fails, the other portion of that particular system is able to take over and carry on operations until everything is back up and running again as it should be. That means that even if something on one of their robots breaks, it doesn’t mean that the entire robot goes down.
10. They reduce warehouse downtime to almost nothing
Because of their ability to design redundant systems that can be updated remotely with something as simple as a software update, they reduce warehouse down time to almost nothing. Obviously, this is vitally important for any individual that is operating a warehouse because a warehouse that is standing still is losing money every second. The company helps their clients make money by allowing them to increase their efficiency when their competitors are essentially standing still.
11. The company is based in France
To be more exact, they are based in Lille, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. This is a location that works well for them because it gives them an opportunity to conduct a number of operations throughout Europe and North America while simultaneously expanding to other areas such as Asia. At the same time, they have the chance to potentially expand their business to other countries that they haven’t even started working with yet. All in all, the location for their headquarters proves to be a near perfect place for them to conduct worldwide operations without the need to open additional offices all over the globe.
12. They just completed their fourth round of fundraising
The fact that they have successfully completed their fourth round of fundraising says quite a lot about the company in general. For one thing, it speaks volumes about the fact that they have a number of investors that believe in the products they are designing and what they are capable of doing with those products. Otherwise, they never would have made it to the fourth round of fundraising to begin with.
13. They have more than 250 employees at any given time
It probably shouldn’t come as any surprise that a company as big as this one has a fairly high number of employees in order to ensure that everything is done properly. In their particular case, they typically have at least 250 people who are working for them at any given point in time. Obviously, that’s a number that can go up by quite a lot at times, as you’ll see in the next paragraph.
14. They sometimes have roughly twice as many employees
It’s true that while they almost always have at least 250 people working for them, they sometimes have as many as 500 employees, depending on the number of clients that they are working with in a particular area. In addition, they sometimes have additional employees because they are working on developing something new or they are conducting additional marketing in order to expand into other areas. With the latest round of funding that they just received, they actually plan to hire even more people in the near future.
15. In total, they have raised $449.4 million
One of the most impressive things about the company is that throughout their four separate rounds of fundraising, they have raised close to $450 million. There are a lot of companies that go through four rounds of fundraising and never get anything even close to this amount. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that they’ve managed to do this with roughly seven investors. That serves as a testament to the amount of confidence that the investors have in this particular company, not to mention the corporation’s ability to deliver on the promises that they have made in the past.
16. The latest round of fundraising alone secured $335 million
The company is definitely getting the attention of investors in all the best ways possible, there is no doubt about that. In fact, the last round of fundraising alone secured $335 million, more than half of the total amount secured throughout four different series of fundraising. While they had managed to secure a fair amount of funding throughout the first three rounds of fundraising, it is this last round alone that will allow them to truly take their business to the next level.
17. The company tends to think ahead
One of the ways that the company has done so well thus far is to think ahead. They tend to find solutions to potential problems before they become a problem and that speaks volumes about the way that the company is operated. As a matter of fact, they plan to use a fair amount of money raised during their Series D fundraising to head off any potential problems associated with the supply chain crisis while simultaneously expanding their business to other areas.
18. They’re always looking for ways to improve
This company is always looking for ways to improve. They’ve managed to expand a great deal during a pandemic that has lasted for more than two years as well as successfully enduring a supply chain crisis that has brought virtually every part of the world to its knees. Through it all, they have seen each of these challenges as a way to think of new solutions as opposed to seeing them as something that can’t be overcome.
19. It all started with a love for math
The company actually got its start because the individuals responsible for launching the company loved math. As a result, there was a desire to find a way to combine that love of math with the real world. This company is the end result.
20. They maintain an active presence on social media
As you might have already guessed, they tend to be fairly active on social media. While they’re not active across all platforms of social media, they tend to let the world know what they are doing through their Twitter account, effectively linking the things they are accomplishing with anyone who shares similar interests.
