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 reside 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 present buyers.
WHAT IT DOES
The goal of Tombot’s robotic pet, Jennie, which Jim Henson’s Creature Store designed, is to offer the well being advantages attributed to reside animal possession, together with stress discount and combating loneliness.
The robotic pet is for people with dementia and delicate cognitive impairment residing in non-public houses, assisted dwelling 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 non-compulsory caregiver app that permits the top consumer to call the pet, customise its performance and monitor consumer interactions.
The funds can be used to develop Tombot’s group, finalize engineering and full regulatory and security certifications.
The corporate is getting ready to ship its first robotic pet to greater than 16,000 clients who pre-ordered the product in addition to to clients on a waitlist.
“Tombot is getting into a high-demand, underserved market on the intersection of psychological well being and assistive know-how,” Tombot CEO and cofounder Tom Stevens stated in a press release.
“Over 300 million seniors all over the world with dementia and delicate cognitive impairment are unable to look after a reside 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 the same predicament.”
MARKET SNAPSHOT
A 2019 meta-analysis revealed that growing older adults dwelling in care houses 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 in the course of the research. Whereas most quantitative information obtained within the evaluation typically supported this pattern, the evaluation of agitation discount was not statistically vital.
The researchers additionally emphasised that not all seniors work together with the simulated pets and cautioned that “some older adults, households and nursing workers would possibly actively dislike them.”
Different firms within the robotics house embody tDiligent Robotics, which manufactures the autonomous scientific help robotic Moxi. In 2023, the corporate scored $25 million in new funding.
The Moxi robotic performs supply duties for hospital employees who are usually not patient-facing, together with delivering lab samples, bringing provides from central storage, delivering medicines, retrieving sufferers’ gadgets, distributing private protecting gear and transferring light-weight gear between items.
In 2020, Mind Navi developed a robotic to autonomously carry out nasal swab assessments, aiming to forestall cross-infections, shield healthcare employees and scale back pressure on healthcare methods.
The robotic helps to scale back staff-patient contact with extremely infectious ailments on the level of testing by autonomously navigating and safely amassing affected person samples.
It routinely 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 12 months, 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 Cell Robots options firm for service industries comparable to hospitality, healthcare and assisted dwelling.
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.
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