IDG Ventures, YourNest lead $2 Mn round in robotics startup Emotix

Robotics startup Emotix--the makers of personal companion robot, Miko, has raised $2 million in a funding round led by IDG Ventures India and YourNest.

The startup will use the proceed for new product development and research in the field of consumer robotics focussed on emotional and artificial intelligence.

Headquartered in Mumbai, Emotix was founded in 2014 by Sneh Vaswani, Prashant Iyengar, and Chintan Raikar. Emotix's flagship product is Miko, which its claimed as India's first companion robot. The Miko robot is meant for children above 5 years of age and it is designed to work as their perfect companion.

A consumer electronics startup, Emotix is focused on developing advanced, interactive systems that are powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics and Internet of Things (IoT).

Miko, which is priced at Rs 19,000, needs to be paired with a smartphone via Bluetooth and can provide three hours’ worth of conversations on one charge and about 1.2 hours of movements and conversation.

Miko does not need internet for many of its features such as playing games or holding basic conversations. However, answering questions is powered by the web and hence, it will need to go online.

Parents can also have access to a dashboard via a mobile app and can tweak Miko’s interactions with their children as they see fit.

The company claims that Miko has the capability to keep improving its knowledge graph over time by capturing new information. Every 15-20 days the children’s product keeps introducing new updates.

Emotix's team also said that 22 pilots were conducted prior to its launch and it is gaining equal traction from parents in tier-II and -III cities, as well as from those in the metros.

The startup has also raised a seed round of funding from undisclosed investors.

The development was reported by ET.