Lightspeed partner says robotics could be ‘bigger than the industrial revolution’

In October, Raviraj Jain, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, led his firm’s investment in Dexterity Inc. Mr Jain spoke to WSJ Pro about the impact he believes robotics will have on logistics. Below are excerpts from a phone interview.

WSJ Pro: What is the role of robotic technology in helping to reduce supply-chain shortfalls and when will we see those efforts pay off?

Mr. Jain: In the last five to six years, the world of robotics has made some big strides, thanks to the growth and development and improvement of computer vision, the cost of hardware is going down and thanks to [computing power] It is cheap and easily available.

Now in robotics, at least at its limits and with the best companies, it’s finally getting to a point, or a point where it can start to create fairly solid value and solidify in the ecosystem. can drive capacity.

Anyone promising automation in warehouses five to 10 years later is really too late.

WSJ Pro: Which robotics applications have investors concluded are not working and which are becoming clear will work?

Mr. Jain: If it’s a semi-structured environment with some amount of repetition, I think that’s where robotics applications can work. So I think the biggest opportunity in my mind for automation is Warehouse Robotics. But there may be others around inspections and things like that, where you can potentially use robots to perform very defined tasks.

The world is full of examples of people promising robots that will perform a varying amount of tasks that will never happen because the robot doing the work 60% of the time is not a robot. This is a useless robot.

WSJ Pro: Pitchbook data says that through Q3, AI exits have grown to upwards of $166 billion, more than three times the 2020 total value for VC exits. What’s the exit environment like for robotics startups?

Mr. Jain: I don’t look at the macro as a whole and I don’t know what those $166 billion are for exiting.

I can tell you that it is my belief that AI and robotics have the potential to be the biggest activity driving drivers for our generation. I think it should be bigger than the Industrial Revolution.

WSJ Pro: Are there parts of the robotics sector that you see as over-funded and/or underfunded?

Mr. Jain: I think that funding will increase in robotics and companies like Dexterity will show the world the enormous value that robotics can bring to the table. As a result, we will see a robotics company worth $100 billion in this decade.

I think investors of late are going to see the evidence sometimes and I think the proof is coming with some of these companies really scaling up, and I think that will unlock more funding going forward. .

WSJ Pro: Should Robotics Startups Have Valuations Right Now?

Mr. Jain: The question is whether investors are really able to figure out what is the right approach in robotics and what will actually be seen in daylight and in production. Because so many companies just live or remain in the lab [proof of concepts] Always.

Bridging the gap of having a robot that can do some work for a period of time is driving the ROI – which is extremely low.