Photo Credit: Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay
The rise of AI in the recent past has exposed some interesting use-cases across industries. One such example is that of Wilmington, Mass.-based software and robotics maker Symbotic (Nasdaq: SYM), who has successfully leveraged AI to build an offering of Warehouses-as-a-Service.
Symbotic’s Offerings
Symbotic has had a very interesting growth story. The company was born out of its founder Rick Cohen’s, need to improve the warehouse offerings for his grocery distribution business. Cohen was running his family’s company, C&S Wholesale Grocers, when he realized that he needed a robot that could autonomously navigate a warehouse. At the time, Cohen had already grown C&S from a $14 million business to a $33 billion annual revenue business.With that vision in mind, in 2005, Cohen built CasePick Solutions. Over the next three years, he and his team created the first prototype design from the ground up with the desire to meet the needs of the C&S business. By 2012, CasePick was rebranded as Symboti and through design engineering and technology improvements, it launched and entered into its first commercial contract. Symbotic was now on the path to connect supply chain and robotics.Over the next few years, Symbotic continued to invest heavily in technology improvement and added AI and ML capabilities to its software. By 2021, it launched the next generation autonomous robot, SymBot, that could further increase efficiency and system capabilities. The company had by now partnered and contracted with several large retailers to deploy additional systems. Its customer list includes Walmart, Target, and Albertsons, all of whom are using its solutions to improve their inventory and stocking operations. By 2022, Symbotic was trading on the Nasdaq.Symbotic installs and operates a slew of robots that help accelerate and improve efficiency for retailers at their distribution centers. Its machines are powered by AI and function seamlessly with humans. Through its distributed controls architecture, it is able to provide a faster, more accurate open space navigation and localization for its mobile bots. It has built a proprietary software that provides improved control and efficient turning for these bots that have helped improve the reliability and performance of the system. Through a multi-dimensional System AI that powers bot routing and sequencing, it optimizes the picking and placing of items as it directs multiple robotic arms and lift systems. Its intelligent palletization algorithm is able to filter a large number of potential sequences to select the best way to create a mixed-SKU pallet that is optimized for density, stability, and delivery.
Symbotic’s Financials
Symbotic earns revenues in three main segments – systems, software maintenance and support, and operation services. For the fourth quarter ended September, its revenues grew 47% to $577 million, ahead of the market’s estimates by 22%. EPS of $0.05 was also better than the market’s forecast of $0.03 for the quarter. It ended the year with revenues growing 55% to $1.8 billion and an adjusted EBITDA of $96 million.By segment, systems revenue came in at $548.6 million compared with $380.2 million reported a year ago. Software and maintenance revenues improved from $2.1 million to $5.9 million. Operation services revenues grew from $9.5 million a year ago to $22.2 million.For the first quarter, Symbotic expects revenues of $495-$515 million and an EBITDA of $27-$31 million. The market was looking for revenues of $462.8 million and an EPS of $0.08 for the quarter. Analysts expect revenues of $2.26 billion and an EPS of $0.33 for the year.Its stock is trading at $26.76 with a market capitalization of $15.7 billion. It touched a 52-week high of $27.25 soon after the result announcement and has recovered from the 52-week low of $17.11 that it was trading at in September this year. Symbotic had opened on the exchange in 2022 at $10.54. Walmart is a major investor in the company and holds almost 15% stake and is also a major customer.Symbotic is an interesting use-case of how AI and ML technologies have improved the real world. It is not the only player in the market though. Amazon itself has its Amazon Robotics arm that focuses on driving warehouse productivity through its army of bots. Additionally, there are other players like Ocado and AutoStore who offer a similar product.More By This Author:Cloud Stocks: Veeva Accelerates AI Initiatives
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