Tombot, a California-based robotics firm that makes a robotic pet that serves as a companion animal for individuals who can not take care of a reside animal, introduced that it has closed an oversubscribed $6.1 million Sequence A funding spherical.
The spherical was led by Caduceus Capital Companions with participation by new and current buyers.
WHAT IT DOES
The purpose of Tombot’s robotic pet, Jennie, which Jim Henson’s Creature Store designed, is to supply the well being advantages attributed to reside animal possession, together with stress discount and combating loneliness.
The robotic pet is for people with dementia and delicate cognitive impairment residing in non-public properties, assisted dwelling amenities and reminiscence care communities.
The pet comes with sensors that react to the touch, voice instructions, motion and different sensory inputs.
It’s rechargeable and geared up with an optionally available caregiver app that enables the tip person to call the pet, customise its performance and monitor person interactions.
The funds will likely be used to develop Tombot’s group, finalize engineering and full regulatory and security certifications.
The corporate is getting ready to ship its first robotic pet to greater than 16,000 prospects who pre-ordered the product in addition to to prospects on a waitlist.
“Tombot is coming into a high-demand, underserved market on the intersection of psychological well being and assistive expertise,” Tombot CEO and cofounder Tom Stevens mentioned in an announcement.
“Over 300 million seniors world wide with dementia and delicate cognitive impairment are unable to take care of a reside animal at a time after they want the companionship of a pet greater than ever. Hundreds of thousands of different people affected by psychological well being adversities are in an identical predicament.”
MARKET SNAPSHOT
A 2019 meta-analysis revealed that ageing adults dwelling in care properties who’re given and interact with robotic pets usually expertise well being and quality-of-life advantages.
The findings have been primarily primarily based on qualitative responses collected throughout the research. Whereas most quantitative knowledge obtained within the evaluate usually supported this development, the evaluation of agitation discount was not statistically important.
The researchers additionally emphasised that not all seniors work together with the simulated pets and cautioned that “some older adults, households and nursing employees would possibly actively dislike them.”
Different corporations within the robotics area embody tDiligent Robotics, which manufactures the autonomous scientific help robotic Moxi. In 2023, the corporate scored $25 million in new funding.
The Moxi robotic performs supply duties for hospital staff who aren’t patient-facing, together with delivering lab samples, bringing provides from central storage, delivering medicines, retrieving sufferers’ objects, distributing private protecting gear and transferring light-weight gear between models.
In 2020, Mind Navi developed a robotic to autonomously carry out nasal swab exams, aiming to forestall cross-infections, defend healthcare staff and cut back pressure on healthcare methods.
The robotic helps to scale back staff-patient contact with extremely infectious illnesses on the level of testing by autonomously navigating and safely gathering affected person samples.
It robotically acknowledges the affected person’s facial construction and the situation of the nostrils, gently taking the samples to keep away from shut contact with sufferers.
That very same 12 months, Omron Asia-Pacific launched the UVC-LD robotic. It was their first step into the UVC disinfection market.
The robotic was a co-creation with Techmetics Robotics, an Autonomous Cell Robots options firm for service industries similar to hospitality, healthcare and assisted dwelling.
Omron LD-UVC navigates autonomously and disinfects premises, together with high-touch areas, by eliminating 99.90% of micro organism and viruses, each airborne and droplet, by delivering the exact dosage of UVC vitality.
