Learning robots maker Emotix has raised Rs 13.3 crore in its extended Series A round led by its existing backers Chiratae Ventures. This would be the first fund infusion for the company in 2020 that has been selling robots under the brand name Miko.
Chiratae led the round with an investment of Rs 5.51 crore, followed by NASSCOM’s Chairman Keshav Murugesh who invested Rs 3.16 crore, regulatory filings show. YourNest VC Fund and Adveq Holdings founder Bruno Rachel have invested Rs 3.16 crore and Rs 1.11 crore respectively.
Eleven other angel investors also poured in Rs 1.3 crore in the round. The Mumbai-based company has allotted 1596 Seed-2 CCPS to the investors in this round.
In August 2019, Emotix had raised Rs 16 crore funding tranche led by Murugesh. Prior to that, the company had raised Rs 18.6 crore and Rs 53.42 crore in July and August respectively, with significant proceeds coming from Chiratae and YourNest.
Founded by IIT Bombay alums Sneh Vaswani, Prashant Iyengar and Chintan Raikar in January 2015, Miko creates emotionally intelligent robots. It claims to leverage artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) in developing its flagship robot brand – Miko.
In December last year, Emotix had launched the upgraded version of its companion robot, Miko 2.0 priced at Rs 25,000. Unlike its previous version, the new one uses intelligence such as voice-recognition technology to see, hear, sense, express, talk, and recognize faces.
Emotix had launched Miko 2.0 in the North American market in late 2019. However, the pandemic has put a brake on their expansion plans and the company is likely to ramp up overseas ops once things get back to normal.
