Miko, a robotics startup that focuses on creating emotive products, has raised Rs 23 crore ($3.1 million) in a pre-Series B round of funding led by venture debt firm Stride Ventures.
The company’s existing investors including Chiratae Ventures and YourNest also participated in this round, as per a press statement. Former Nasscom chairman Keshav Murugesh, another existing investor, also took part.
Miko plans to use the fresh capital for product development and form global alliances.
Miko was founded in 2015 by three alumni of IIT-Mumbai—Sneh Vaswani, Prashant Iyengar and Chintan Raikar. The startup, operated by RN Chidakashi Technologies Pvt. Ltd, has 150 employees in India and the US.
The company’s products include Miko 2, a robot that can see and hear, initiate a conversation and learn from its environment.
“We are on track to surpass the 100,000-user mark in the coming quarters with Miko 2 hosting hundreds of applications and use cases,” Vaswani said.
Stride founder Ishpreet Gandhi said the investment in Miko shows its commitment to enabling frontier technologies that can potentially “disrupt the status quo”.
Miko claims its users are located in more than 90 countries. The company saw over 20% month-on-month growth in engagement during the pandemic and surpassed 70 million interactions on its platform.
The company had raised $7.5 million in its Series A funding round in April 2019 led by Chiratae Ventures.
The investment marks the latest bet on a company operating in the robotics space.
In June, Aubotz Labs Pvt. Ltd, which operates industrial robotics startup Peppermint, raised seed funding from startup incubator and accelerator Venture Catalysts and former Castrol Asia head Naveen Kshatriya.
In March, Robotics startup Janyu Technologies Pvt. Ltd mopped up capital from an electronics manufacturer by selling a minority stake.
In January, Skilancer Solar Pvt. Ltd, a startup that provides robotic cleaning systems for solar panels of commercial parks and establishments, raised an undisclosed sum from Venture Catalysts.
The same month, Mitra Robots designer Invento Robotics secured raised seed funding from early-stage ITI Growth Opportunities Venture Fund of Investment Trust of India.
Other startups that have raised money in the segment include SP Robotics Works Pvt. Ltd, Systemantics India Pvt. Ltd and Fin Robotics Inc.
