Chiratae, Yournest Invest In Robotics Startup Emotix

Mumbai-based robotics startup emotix that identifies emotional intelligence, has raised $2.69 Mn (INR 18.58 Cr) in a fresh funding round. Sources close to the development indicated to Inc42 that the investment is a part of a larger funding round.

According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings accessed by Inc42, the investments have come in from Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures), Technology Venture Fund and Yournest India.

The filings further showed that the fresh funds will be invested towards company’s research and development requirements.

The creator of Miko, a robot for children focused on educating and entertaining children, emotix was founded in January 2015 by three IIT Bombay alumni: Chintan Raikar, Prashant Iyengar and Sneh Vaswani. The company last raised $2 Mn in April last year.

As per emotix, priced at $285 (INR 19,000), Miko has the capability to keep improving its knowledge graph over time by capturing new information. It said 22 pilots were conducted prior to its launch. Earlier, talking about Miko, Vaswani said that it’s an interface that “aims to fulfill the gaps in a young child’s education that can be used to engage, interact and ultimately educate the child without taking anything away from a human experience”.

The company had recently launched second model of Miko, named Miko 2. The company is also expanding its operations in the US.

As an artificial intelligence and robotics-focused company, emotix has been struggling with its expenses and the aim to achieve profitability. The company’s filings for FY 2017-18 showed that it incurred expenses of INR 2.34 Cr to generate revenues of INR 1.48 Cr.

In FY19-20 the company aims to be profitable with a Y-o-Y growth of 354%.

Other Indian startups who are utilising robotics to disrupt different segments include QTPI and Pune Bharti Robotics, among others. Apart from them, a teenage trio also developed India’s first food serving robot named Butler ‘O’ Bistro (BOB) in Bengaluru last year.

According to a report on the “Educational Robot Market by Component (Hardware and Software), Type (Humanoid and Non-Humanoid), Education Level (Elementary and High School Education, Higher Education, and Special Education), and Geography – Global Forecast to 2023”, the educational robot market is valued at $778.6 Mn in 2018 and is expected to reach $1,689.2 Mn by 2023, at a CAGR of 16.8% between 2018 and 2023.

The toys market in India is worth $3 Bn, with less than 5% in the organised segment. Beyond the play toys, a combination of programming, robotics, education and fun in one package of emotix is an interesting addition here.

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