diff --git a/packages/opentelemetry-exporter-collector-grpc/src/util.ts b/packages/opentelemetry-exporter-collector-grpc/src/util.ts
index 299a6e7e819..282028cb444 100644
--- a/packages/opentelemetry-exporter-collector-grpc/src/util.ts
+++ b/packages/opentelemetry-exporter-collector-grpc/src/util.ts
@@ -113,6 +113,14 @@ export function validateAndNormalizeUrl(url: string): string {
     url = `https://${url}`;
   }
   const target = new URL(url);
+
+  if (target.host === '') {
+    diag.warn(
+      'Parsing URL failed to return a valid host. Returning raw url.'
+    );
+    return url
+  }
+
   if (target.pathname && target.pathname !== '/') {
     diag.warn(
       'URL path should not be set when using grpc, the path part of the URL will be ignored.'
@@ -123,5 +131,6 @@ export function validateAndNormalizeUrl(url: string): string {
       'URL protocol should be http(s):// or grpc(s)://. Using grpc://.'
     );
   }
-  return target.host;
+
+  return target.host
 }
diff --git a/packages/opentelemetry-exporter-collector-grpc/test/util.test.ts b/packages/opentelemetry-exporter-collector-grpc/test/util.test.ts
index ba08009cd55..a3fbb3a6a21 100644
--- a/packages/opentelemetry-exporter-collector-grpc/test/util.test.ts
+++ b/packages/opentelemetry-exporter-collector-grpc/test/util.test.ts
@@ -62,6 +62,12 @@ describe('validateAndNormalizeUrl()', () => {
       expected: 'api.datacat.io',
       warn: 'URL path should not be set when using grpc, the path part of the URL will be ignored.',
     },
+    {
+      name: 'missing scheme should fallback to provided url',
+      input: 'example-localhost:1234',
+      expected: 'example-localhost:1234',
+      warn: 'Parsing URL failed to return a valid host. Returning raw url.',
+    },
   ];
   tests.forEach(test => {
     it(test.name, () => {