Tombot, a California-based robotics firm that makes a robotic pet that serves as a companion animal for individuals who can not look after a stay 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 goal of Tombot’s robotic pet, Jennie, which Jim Henson’s Creature Store designed, is to supply the well being advantages attributed to stay animal possession, together with stress discount and combating loneliness.
The robotic pet is for people with dementia and gentle cognitive impairment residing in non-public properties, assisted residing 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 outfitted with an elective caregiver app that permits the tip consumer to call the pet, customise its performance and observe consumer interactions.
The funds might be used to develop Tombot’s workforce, finalize engineering and full regulatory and security certifications.
The corporate is making 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 know-how,” Tombot CEO and cofounder Tom Stevens mentioned in a press release.
“Over 300 million seniors around the globe with dementia and gentle cognitive impairment are unable to look after a stay animal at a time once 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 analogous predicament.”
MARKET SNAPSHOT
A 2019 meta-analysis revealed that getting older adults residing in care properties who’re given and interact with robotic pets usually expertise well being and quality-of-life advantages.
The findings had been primarily primarily based on qualitative responses collected through the research. Whereas most quantitative information obtained within the evaluation typically 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 may actively dislike them.”
Different corporations within the robotics area embrace tDiligent Robotics, which manufactures the autonomous scientific assist robotic Moxi. In 2023, the corporate scored $25 million in new funding.
The Moxi robotic performs supply duties for hospital staff who usually are not patient-facing, together with delivering lab samples, bringing provides from central storage, delivering drugs, retrieving sufferers’ objects, distributing private protecting tools and shifting light-weight tools between models.
In 2020, Mind Navi developed a robotic to autonomously carry out nasal swab exams, aiming to forestall cross-infections, shield healthcare staff and cut back pressure on healthcare techniques.
The robotic helps to scale back staff-patient contact with extremely infectious illnesses on the level of testing by autonomously navigating and safely accumulating 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 yr, 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 Cellular Robots options firm for service industries equivalent to hospitality, healthcare and assisted residing.
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 power.
