Avridh Technologies Inc, which runs automation startup Peer Robotics, on Monday said it has raised seed funding of $2.3 million (around Rs 17.25 crore) led by Kalaari Capital, with participation from existing investors Axilor Ventures, Connecticut Innovations and Innopact VC.
The US and Gurugram-based firm will deploy the fresh proceeds for research and development on human robot interaction and market expansion across small and medium scale manufacturing globally.
Founded by Rishabh Agarwal, Alok Kumar and Tanya Raghuvanshi in 2019, Peer Robotics is a mobile robotics solution designed to work with humans, mirroring workflows in manufacturing operations on repetitive tasks, saving time, increasing efficiencies and reducing injuries. It is part of Stanley+Techstars accelerator programme portfolio.
“Manufacturers regularly deal with lots of repetitive, labor-intensive tasks that are great candidates for automation. Small and medium-size companies are struggling with the labor shortage today, not to mention high turnover. Also, many operations are still manual with employees operating at a high risk of injuries and fatigue. Solutions to date have been too expensive and complex” said Agarwal.
“Cyber physical systems are ushering a new era where collaborative robots with contextual intelligence, low implementation time, and negligible integration cost will lead industrialization in every sector,” said Ravinder Pal Singh, partner, Kalaari Capital.
Homegrown venture capital (VC) firm Kalaari Capital’s Limited Partners (LPs) had earned returns of more than $600 million in 2021 alone after the firm's exit from about 10 companies, either partially or fully, as per VCCircle’s report last December.
India’s automation space has been garnering investors’ attention for quite some time.
In July, Network infrastructure management company AppViewX, raised a Series B funding of $20 million from existing investor Brighton Park Capital.
In May, Grey Orange Pte. Ltd, which operates the warehouse robotics and automation firm GreyOrange, raised $110 million from US-based investment firm Mithril Capital Management, along with separate financing provided by funds and accounts under management by BlackRock.
