Balyo is set to obtain a huge investment from tech giant Amazon. Amazon has agreed to a seven-year deal with the French robotic solutions company for the company to supply Amazon with self-driving forklift trucks as the retail giant looks to cut costs at its delivery centres and speed up deliveries. The funding will escalate Balyo’s operational capacity and sales of autonomous forklift trucks. Pursuant to the agreement signed, Amazon will receive free stock warrants which will vest based on the tech giant’s purchase of Balyo-enabled products.
The full number of stock warrants, representing up to 29 per cent of Balyo’s share capital and voting rights, would become exercisable according to Amazon’s decision if they order up to €300m of Balyo-enabled products. The issuance of the warrants will be submitted for the approval at an Extraordinary General Meeting of Balyo’s shareholders.
Balyo had raised €10m in previous funding and maintains strategic agreements with logistical operators including Kion Group AG (Linde Material Handling’s parent company) and Hyster-Yale Group. With employee strength of over 100, Balyo maintains workshops in Paris, Boston and Xiamen. As per the company’s expectation, the current financial year’s revenue will be €23.3m which is a 40 per cent leap over the last year.