Last month, former ShareChat co-founders Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan announced the launch of General Autonomy, an industrial robotics startup based in Bengaluru. It is interesting to note that they exited the social media company less than a year ago after having built it for nine years.
Their new startup General Autonomy – a significant pivot from social media – aims to revolutionise the future of factories, and build robots, which will be used by the industrial sector. These machines will be driven by artificial intelligence platforms.
“We LOVE robots! 😍 Especially industrial ones—they help us “make” things! With a vision to make mass manufacturing agile and distributed like software development, we’re in Bengaluru but working globally. 🌎,” shared Ahsan on X.
Interestingly, the IIT Kanpur alumni Singh and Ahsan majored in Electrical and Material Science Engineering respectively were active members of the robotics club in college. Looks like they have always had the passion for robotics since the beginning, and want to be a part of the growing demand for industrial robots in India.
This year, saw a lot more founders leaving the company to start another compared . A critical aspect of this trend is the financial health of these companies. Only a few were profitable in 2022, with the majority still operating at a loss.
ShareChat Struggles
The duo Ahsan and Singh started building apps together in 2012 since their college days. After experimenting with several products, they succeeded with ShareChat, along with co-founder Ankush Sachdeva designed to cater to non-English speakers in India.
Currently their roles as COO and CTO are left vacant and with no plans of hiring. The current CFO Manohar Charan has taken up some of the responsibilities but according to sources the teams are working without formal leadership.
Launched in 2015, ShareChat was notable for its focus on regional Indian languages, which is a barrier for social media apps in India. They made digital content accessible to a broader user base by adding 15 languages like Odia, Kannada and Punjabi.
The platform was built to work effectively even in areas with low internet connectivity, thanks to a lightweight messaging architecture. “This was a game-changer. It helped us grow fast in areas of low internet connectivity,” said Bhanu. Under their leadership, ShareChat achieved rapid growth, reaching over 60 million users within its first year.
This year however, things haven’t been going well for the company. The company, despite being valued at around $4.9 billion, reported operational revenues of only ₹347 crore and losses amounting to ₹2,988 crore in the fiscal year ending March 2022.
Additionally, ShareChat faced significant challenges, including a string of expensive acquisitions and a mass firing where 20% of its workforce was cut due to external macro factors impacting the cost and availability of capital.
As of 2022, Moj, a subsidiary of ShareChat specialising in short video content, along with MX TakaTak. Amidst this, the loss of two founders raised eyebrows.
However, it’s not all bad news as it saw an increase in revenue because of their multiple acquisitions over the last three years. The number of users also increased considerably to a combined 300 million in all their platforms.
The transition to building a robotics company also comes at a time when ShareChat is going through a turbulent time in terms of revenue. The company reported a loss of INR 3,241 crores against a revenue of INR 535 crores.
The industrial robotics market is valued at $17 billion as of this year and is expected to grow significantly to a $35.4 billion market by 2028. The segment is fueled by the increasing adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies across various sectors, particularly in the automotive, packaging, and metal industries.
Robotics to the Rescue
In a time where the integration of AI in robotics is predicted to change how the field works, General Autonomy is a significant shift in the founders’ entrepreneurial journey, moving from social media to the field of industrial robotics.“Our mission is to revolutionise the future of factories, focusing on automation..” Ahsan said in his tweet. He stressed that AI driven machines to automate the toughest parts of labour workflows in factories.
To set this up, the company has successfully raised $3 million in seed funding, with contributions from India Quotient, ElevCap, and mentorship from favourite investors including Mayank Khanduja and Anand Lunia. The funding round also saw participation from notable angels like Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Ramakant Sharma, and Ankush Sachdeva, Share Chat’s co-founder.
This shift aligns with the sector’s anticipation of a ‘GPT moment’ in robotics. Companies like Grey Orange, have become notable success stories, raising substantial investment and expanding globally. The sector has attracted investor interest, with startups receiving funding for a range of innovative solutions, from agricultural robots to automated solar panel cleaning and companion robots.
The plans of General Autonomy are unclear as they refused to comment.
