The information was first reported by The Wall Avenue Journal on Monday and later confirmed by AutoStore in an replace on its web site.

The deal values AutoStore at $7.7 billion.

SoftBank, which has made a string of investments into e-commerce and robotics over the previous couple of years, is shopping for the stake from U.S. personal fairness group Thomas H. Lee Companions and Swedish enterprise capital agency EQT.

“We view AutoStore as a foundational expertise that allows fast and cost-effective logistics for corporations across the globe,” SoftBank CEO and founder Masayoshi Son stated in a press release. “We look ahead to working with AutoStore to aggressively broaden throughout finish markets and geographies.”

Based 25 years in the past by Ingvar Hognaland and headquartered in a village close to Bergen known as Nedre Vats, AutoStore has developed what it calls “dice storage automation,” which permits robots to maximise space for storing in warehouses.

It says that it has deployed 20,000 of its robots at 600 websites throughout 35 nations and that its expertise permits clients to both retailer 4 occasions the stock in the identical area or all of their current stock in 25% of the area. AutoStore clients embrace U.S. electronics retailer Finest Purchase, Swedish telco Siemens, and British grocery chain Asda.

Karl Johan Lier, president and CEO of AutoStore, stated in a press release that SoftBank’s backing will assist it to develop within the Asia-Pacific area.

By way of the SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund, the billionaire has pumped huge quantities of capital into corporations like Arm, Inconceivable and Mind Corp. as a part of an effort to make sure SoftBank has a monetary stake in companies which might be engaged on next-generation applied sciences.

SoftBank has additionally snapped up shares in a number of logistics corporations that may enhance provide chains for e-commerce giants like Alibaba, which SoftBank additionally has a stake in.

For instance, SoftBank backed U.S. warehouse robotics group Berkshire Gray in 2019. The logistics automation methods supplier introduced in February that it’s going public by means of a merger with blank-check firm Revolution Acceleration Acquisition Corp. in a deal that values the mixed firm at $2.7 billion.

Nathan Benaich, a enterprise capitalist with a deal with synthetic intelligence, instructed CNBC the pandemic has clearly been a “boon” for warehouse logistics and fulfilment corporations as they’re the “spine of on-line commerce.”

“AutoStore, amongst friends like Berkshire Gray, Ocado Robotics, and 6 River Programs, are nearly 10-20 12 months ‘in a single day’ success shops in robotics,” he stated. “They’ve quietly been constructing out their capabilities and warehouse footprint over that point and at the moment are aggressively capturing at present’s surging buyer demand.”