DECLINING VALUATIONS? REALLY?
We recently heard Clearpath Robotics/Otto Motors was acquired by Rockwell (source) and thought that perhaps valuations had been affected by the massive decline in valuation of 6 River Systems.
6 River Systems (link) was founded in 2015 by ex-Kiva Systems (acquired by Amazon in 2012) people and was acquired by Shopify in 2019 for $450m (source).
In 2023, Shopify's change of strategy led them to divest 6 River Systems for $12.7m (source), representing a 35X value destruction.
STIQ's inital thought was that this may affect valuations in the wider automation sector, but it appears the Shopify divestment was viewed as a fire sale to get rid of non-core assets rather than a systemic decline in valuations.
CLEARPATH ROBOTICS/OTTO MOTORS + ROCKWELL
According to market observers, Rockwell paid c.20X revenue for Clearpath Robotics/Otto Motors which would point to a relatively healthy exit for backers and also confirm valuations remain high in the sector.
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