Telexistence Raises $20M to Expand Remote-Controlled Robotics
June 15, 2021
Telexistence, which is developing remote-controlled robotics with artificial intelligence, has closed a $20 million Series A-2 financing round, according to Airbus Ventures. The round was led by a group company of Monoful Inc, with additional funds from KDDI, Deepcore, UTokyo IPC, and other new investors. The company has raised about $41 million to date since its founding in 2017.
“As we rethink and transform the basic meaning of ‘existence,’ we are actively expanding our in-house engineering team, accelerating product development and upscaling deployment to the company’s growing customer base in offline retail and logistics,” said Jin Tomioka, CEO and co-founder of Telexistence. “This funding signals a new chapter, and we are excited to welcome new partners, still more grateful than ever for Airbus Ventures, our lead Series A investor in 2018, and their mentorship and dedication to our mission.”
Telexistence aims to release humans from physical constraints through robotics, telecommunication, virtual reality, haptics, and AI. In July 2020, the company unveiled its Model-T Robot. The Model-T is equipped with highly flexible hardware that enables low-cost production, control software to reduce errors in the movement between a remote operator and robot, and communication control that minimizes latency in a high-load communication environment using VR, as well as a robot hand that enables accurate and quick stocking for merchandise of various shapes.
In October 2021, the company will join forces with FamilyMart Co., Ltd., in collaboration with Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, to help advance operational infrastructure through robotics.
“Telexistence is accelerating its now proven capacity to bring future trends and anticipated technologies into reach, and fuse them into practical reality in the here and now,” said Lewis Pinault, a partner of Airbus Ventures. “Where AI and human intelligence each on their own could not achieve practical robot operations across time and space, Telexistence makes their combination work, with the connectivity capabilities to now make important contributions to logistics applications and a host of new possibilities ahead. Jin and this brilliantly creative, internationally diversified team now benefit from an even stronger collective through our co-investors, whose outstanding expertise across logistics, telecom, and AI are set to build key elements of a more fully connected and newly realized society to tackle the challenges of our planet.”
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