Ottonomy.IO, a deep tech startup focused on robotics, has raised $3.3 million (around Rs 26.4 crore) in its seed funding round led by pi Ventures with participation from Connetic Ventures, Branded Hospitality Ventures and the founder and chief executive of Addverb Technologies, Sangeet Kumar.
The company will use the capital to scale production and build capacity to address the current pipeline of customers, expand its team size and further strengthen its presence across North America, Europe, and the Middle East.
The current funding round brings its total funding to date to $4.9 million
Founded in late 2020, by Ritukar Vijay, Pradyot Korupolu, Ashish Gupta and Hardik Sharma, Ottonomy.IO claims to be one of the first robotics companies to develop robots that can navigate completely autonomously in both indoor and outdoor environments, without human assistance. These robots fuse data from 3D Lidar and cameras and use AI to have an understanding of the external world.
The company said before the Covid-19 pandemic, robots were being tested in limited numbers across the world. However, the pandemic-driven growing preference for online delivery, the rising labour shortages and emerging business models have accelerated their deployment.
Ottonomy.IO said it has received customer validation and positive response from customers at Cincinnati International Airport (CVG). It has started partnerships with multiple airports across the US and Europe. In addition to expanding its curbside and last-mile delivery technology advances, the company is working with corporations in the retail and restaurants industry across North America for wide adoption.
“The team has vested in autonomous driving for more than a decade. We believe fully autonomous delivery robots are not only a precursor to autonomous vehicle proliferation but are solving today’s biggest challenges like - the labour shortage; enabling staff to do more with less,” said Ritukar Vijay, co-founder, CEO of Ottonomy.IO.
