Miko, a robotics startup that focusses on creating emotive products, has raised $7.5 million (approximately Rs 53.29 crore at current exchange rates) in its Series A funding round from a clutch of investors including existing investor Chiratae Ventures.
Existing investor YourNest also participated in the round. Other investors that contributed to the round include Bruno Raschle and a group of angel investors.
The company will use the funds for market expansion in North America, the United Kingdom and West Asia, Miko said in a statement. Funds will also be used for new product development and research in the emotional and artificial intelligence segments, it added.
Miko’s co-founder and chief executive officer Sneh Vaswani said the company’s products would meet the needs of parents looking for a positive and trusted technology gateway which will help their children in learning and development.
“The team’s execution skills and immense consumer obsession has reaffirmed our faith in their vision,” YourNest managing director Sunil Goyal said.
Miko, also known as Emotix, was founded in 2015 by three alumni of IIT-Mumbai, Sneh Vaswani Prashant Iyengar and Chintan Raikar. The company is operated by RN Chidakashi Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Its products include Miko 2, a robot that can see, hear, initiate a conversation and learn from its environment.
Chiratae Ventures founder and chairman Sudhir Sethi said Miko was on its way to “entering 20 million global home by 2023”. The startup currently has 120 employees in the US and India.
In April last year, RN Chidakashi raised $2 million (Rs 13 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round led by Chiratae (then known as IDG Ventures India) and YourNest. Other investors that participated in that funding round included Keshav Murugesh, the group chief executive officer of information technology firm WNS.
The Series A round in Miko is the second bet on a startup focussed on children by Chiratae. Last month, the firm led a $7 million (around Rs 48.27 crore) Series A round in educational toymaker PlayShifu, along with Inventus Capital, Bharat Innovation Fund and IDFC-Parampura Fund.