Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) has bought a majority stake in Addverb Technologies, picking up a 55.7% stake in the Noida-based robotics company for Rs 985 crore.

“Reliance is excited to partner with Addverb, led by first-generation entrepreneurs who have created strong robotic and supply chain automation solutions. The investment in Addverb underlines our commitment to technology-led innovation startups that have the ability to transform various critical business functions,” said Isha Ambani, Director, RRVL. “We look forward to working with the highly talented and innovation focused founding team of Addverb as we further expand the partnership and business going forward.”

Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd is the retail arm of Reliance Industries Ltd, and the latest acquisition will help India's largest conglomerate - with diverse interests in energy, telecom, textiles, and petrochemicals - automate its business operations to achieve efficiency and productivity.

Sangeet Kumar, CEO and co-founder, Addverb Technologies, said, “Reliance is already one of our esteemed clients with whom we had co-created and delivered highly automated warehouses for some of their businesses. This investment reinforces our strategic association across technology and business areas, and will enable us to realise our vision of establishing a cutting-edge technology and innovation-led global robotics company.”

The robotics and supply-chain automation solutions provider is setting up a state-of-the-art robotics manufacturing facility in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. “This will be one of the largest robotics manufacturing facilities globally,” the company said in a statement.

Founded in 2016, Addverb expects to double its revenue this financial year ending March 31 to Rs 400 crore, media reports said.

Addverb has operations in India, Singapore, the Netherlands and Australia. The company provides products across four verticals in the automation domain – robotics, automated storage and retrieval systems, picking and software.

Addverb has provided its robots/solutions to over 100 customers globally and streamlined processes for many companies across various industries such as Retail, e-commerce, pharma, FMCG, petrochemicals, besides developing highly-automated warehouses for leading consumer brands.