Reliance-backed manufacturing company Addverb Technologies, which specialises in producing automation machinery for warehouses and factories, plans to venture into hospital automation with the launch of four products by the end of this financial year, according to a top company executive.
Speaking to businessline, Sangeet Kumar, Co-founder and CEO, informed that the initial offering in hospital automation includes haptic sensors, which serve as joysticks enabling doctors to maneuver robots with precision, and a collaborative robot (cobot) designed primarily for lower limb rehabilitation.
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Additionally, they are developing an exoskeleton for the upper limb, providing wearable robotic assistance. In terms of sanitisation and disinfection, the company already offers a mobile robot equipped with a UV unit, and medical-focused products catering specifically to healthcare applications.
It will start the sale of these products in the country, and eventually launch them in international markets.
Manufacturing footprint
Presently, Addverb runs one manufacturing facility in Noida, which can support a turnover of ₹1,000 crore and has the capacity to produce 50,000 robots. Additionally, the company is building another facility in Noida, which will increase its revenue-generating potential to ₹6,000 crore and be able to manufacture more than 1,00,000 robots annually.
“Overall, we are investing ₹500 crore which will be split into two phases. The first phase will see an investment of around ₹200 crore. The factory will be inaugurated this month or in July and is spread over 6 lakh square feet,” said the founder.
The company generated ₹450 crore revenue in FY23 and aims to double its topline by the end of FY24 against the backdrop of a strong domestic and international order pipeline. “This year we are planning to do around ₹1,000 crore primarily because of our expansion in the overseas market as well as the internal demands from Reliance,” Kumar said.
Initially, 90 per cent of its business came from e-commerce, while the remaining 10 per cent came from other industries. However, in the last two years, the company has seen a shift in terms of contributions from across different industries.
“Today, e-comm has come down to about 30-40 per cent, the remaining 60 per cent comes from sectors such as FMCG, petrochemical, chemical, and others,” Kumar said.
Expanding markets
Over the past two years, the company has been actively pursuing expansion, establishing four fully-owned subsidiaries in the US, Europe, Australia, and Singapore. With an increasing demand for robots worldwide, the company anticipates a rise in demand from international markets as well.
“While 70 per cent of the business comes from the domestic market, the remaining 30 per cent is derived from international markets,” he said. Currently, its product portfolio includes eight product families, and each of these families would have 10 to 15 products.
More engineers
At the group level, Addverb currently employs more than 800 engineers. But by the end of this year, “we will have around 1,000 engineers across all geographies put together, but 90 per cent of that is Indian, and 10 per cent of that number is overseas,” Kumar said.
The company has 25 per cent of its overall headcount in R&D, and last year it invested ₹50 crore in different prototypes of its products. It runs two R&D centers — Noida and in the US. In addition to these, it also runs three centres of excellence in Noida — one for software, and two for mechanical and electrical.
“In the US, we are mostly working on electronics and robotics, which closely work with the Indian team here. As far as building new products for EVs and batteries, solar and electronics, or semiconductors. We don’t necessarily have new products; instead, we need new versions of our existing products,” noted the CEO.