Tombot, a California-based robotics firm that makes a robotic pet that serves as a companion animal for individuals who can’t take care of 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 current traders.
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 reside animal possession, together with stress discount and combating loneliness.
The robotic pet is for people with dementia and delicate cognitive impairment residing in personal houses, assisted residing services 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 geared up with an non-obligatory caregiver app that permits the tip consumer to call the pet, customise its performance and observe consumer interactions.
The funds will probably be used to develop Tombot’s group, 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 getting into a high-demand, underserved market on the intersection of psychological well being and assistive expertise,” Tombot CEO and cofounder Tom Stevens mentioned in an announcement.
“Over 300 million seniors around the globe with dementia and delicate cognitive impairment are unable to take care of 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 an analogous predicament.”
MARKET SNAPSHOT
A 2019 meta-analysis revealed that ageing adults residing in care houses who’re given and have interaction with robotic pets usually expertise well being and quality-of-life advantages.
The findings have been primarily based mostly on qualitative responses collected throughout the research. Whereas most quantitative information obtained within the evaluation usually supported this pattern, 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 workers would possibly actively dislike them.”
Different corporations within the robotics area embrace 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 should not patient-facing, together with delivering lab samples, bringing provides from central storage, delivering medicines, retrieving sufferers’ objects, distributing private protecting gear and transferring light-weight gear between items.
In 2020, Mind Navi developed a robotic to autonomously carry out nasal swab checks, aiming to stop cross-infections, defend healthcare employees 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 mechanically 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 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.
