Top 10 in Five Years, Top 5 in Ten: Inside Addverb's $100 Million Bet to Put India on the Global Robotics Map

Most people who know Addverb Technologies know it as the company that automates warehouses — those efficient sorting and conveying robots that move goods around at logistics parks, electronics factories, and e-commerce fulfilment centres. The company built a credible business in that space. Reliance Industries invested $132 million in 2021 and took a controlling stake. Revenue grew. International expansion followed into the US, Netherlands, and Australia.

And now, the founders have decided that warehouses were just the beginning.

Addverb Technologies is seeking to raise more than $100 million to cement its role as India's top robotics company, while investing in new technologies including humanoid robots and preparing for a stock market debut in a few years. Chief Executive Officer Sangeet Kumar put the ambition plainly: "We want to be in the top 10 in the next 5 years and top 5 in the next 10 years."

For a company that currently ranks just outside the global top 30 by robotics revenue, that is an extraordinary statement of intent. But the market context makes it less audacious than it sounds.

FROM WAREHOUSE BOTS TO HUMANOIDS

The $100 million will fund humanoid and quadruped robot development, data collection, and AI training systems. Addverb also plans to launch proprietary lidar sensors after more than two years of development, reducing dependence on imported components.

The move from warehouse automation into humanoids and quadrupeds is a significant strategic expansion — but one with clear internal logic. Addverb already builds the mechanical systems, the navigation software, the control algorithms, and the AI training pipelines that make its existing robots work. Humanoids and quadrupeds demand versions of exactly those capabilities, just at greater sophistication and in less structured environments.

The company sees a major growth opportunity in humanoids, a swiftly emerging market where companies from Unitree Robotics to Tesla's Optimus vie for leadership. Kumar believes Indian companies can develop competitive strengths, even with Chinese firms' head start and advantages including government subsidies.

THE CHINA PROBLEM — AND THE VERTICAL INTEGRATION ANSWER

The challenge Addverb faces is stark and well-understood by its management. Chinese competitors benefit from government subsidies and a dense manufacturing supply chain that Indian firms cannot yet match. Addverb is betting that vertical integration and domestic IP can offset the cost disadvantage.

China currently leads the global field in humanoid robotics with 23 startups, just ahead of the 22 US-based companies. India ranks third globally with 12 humanoid robotics startups — not a gap that closes with good intentions. It closes with capital, proprietary technology, and manufacturing scale.

The lidar sensor development is the clearest example of Addverb's response strategy. Lidar — the light-detection and ranging sensors that give robots their spatial awareness — is currently almost entirely imported from Chinese and Western suppliers. Building it domestically after two years of internal R&D eliminates a supply chain dependency, reduces per-unit cost over time, and creates IP that no competitor can simply replicate by buying components from the same suppliers.

Kumar believes the proprietary technology push is essential: Chinese firms have a head start and government subsidies, but vertical integration and domestic IP can create advantages that are hard for any competitor to quickly copy.

THE NUMBERS: GROWING FAST, NOT YET PROFITABLE

Revenue is projected at ₹13 billion this fiscal year, supported by an order book of approximately $200 million. The company reported losses during its international expansion but expects to return to adjusted profitability in the fiscal year ending March 2027 and net profit the following year.

The fundraising marks Addverb's first major capital raise since Reliance's 2021 investment. Addverb was founded in 2016 by four engineers who previously worked at Asian Paints — not the most obvious background for a robotics company, but one that gave the founders deep exposure to manufacturing operations, process inefficiency, and the very real industrial problems that warehouse automation solves.

With half its revenue now coming from outside India — across deployments in the US, Netherlands, and Australia — Addverb is already more internationally scaled than its outside-top-30 ranking suggests. The $100 million raise is about accelerating that international trajectory while simultaneously building the humanoid and quadruped technology that will define whether it reaches Kumar's top-10 ambition.

THE IPO TIMELINE

Kumar said an IPO is a key option for future fundraising, though the timing remains a few years away as the company focuses on profitability first. The sequencing — profitability by FY27, net profit by FY28, then a public listing — mirrors the approach that India's most successful new-age hardware companies have used to reach public markets with credible financials.

When Addverb does list, it will be entering a market that has never seen a pure-play Indian robotics company at that scale. The valuation question — how does a public market value a company building physical AI systems in a global race against Chinese and American giants — will be one of the more interesting pricing exercises in Indian equity markets.

In 2025 alone, $2.65 billion was invested in humanoid robot startups globally — more than in the years 2018 to 2024 combined. The market is moving fast. Addverb is moving with it — from the warehouses of Noida to a future where its robots might eventually walk through the very logistics facilities its earlier machines helped automate.

Top 10 in five years. The clock is running.