Press Release: April 25, 2018
Emotix, a new age Indian robotics and consumer Electronics Company founded on the pillars of Artificial Intelligence, and Internet of Things has secured a $2M investment through funds advised by IDG Ventures India and YourNest. Existing Angel Investors, Mr. Keshav Murugesh, Group Chief Executive Officer of WNS Global Services and many potential investors participated in the funding round.
Companion or social robots go a step beyond voice assisted devices. They incorporate emotion. This is achieved by going beyond the speech interface to include non-verbal cues like motion or physical gestures which enhance human engagement. Emotix has secured a technology leadership in this emerging category which offers a sizeable market especially amongst young parents. The company’s first offering, Miko is India’s first companion robot for children and has received an extremely favorable response within the first few months of its launch.
Commenting on the funding, Sneh Rajkumar Vaswani, Co-Founder & CEO, Emotix said,“Miko is an outcome of extensive research throughout the country, particularly to identify the unmet needs of parents, of children, their unspelt expectations, which translated into all of its features that come bundled with the robot today. The recent investment from funds advised by IDG Ventures India and YourNest is a great validation of efforts by the team. It will propel the company towards further research and development, accelerate launch of new products and facilitate foray into global markets. Besides a consistent growth rate in sales, we surpass some of the best AI conversational stacks globally by clocking 37 times the average session duration with our user as compared to industry peers.”
Miko which has been developed over a period of 2.5 years through 22 pilot testing across consumer groups is targeting sales of over 1,00,000 units by 2021 in India alone.
“In our view, Emotix is poised to record stellar growth. Emotix has identified a huge market and created a niche through its pipeline of unique offerings based on cutting edge innovation in robotics, artificial intelligence and psychology. It’s not only a seamless demonstration of filling gaps in the life of the consumer but also an attempt to revolutionize man-machine interaction. These considerations and the attractive growth potential excited us to invest in Emotix,” Mr. Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Managing General Partner, IDG Ventures India, said.
At a time when technology especially smart phones and social media is increasingly invading Indian households affecting most children in their formative years, Emotix with a team of engineers, mathematicians, artists and neuro-psychologists, has created India’s first artificial intelligence based companion robot for children. Miko is an extremely capable robot with the ability to engage, educate and even entertain children above 5 years with access to a wide pool of knowledge, insights and intelligent database.
Commenting on the development, Mr. Sunil Goyal, Director & Fund Manager, YourNest Venture Capital, “Electronic Development Fund (EDF) is an anchor investor in YourNest. Emotix is a perfect startup that meets EDF’s objectives of nurturing ventures in areas of IoT & robotics. Team Emotix took everyone by storm at the Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas earlier this year. The differentiated thinking and ingenuity that Sneh and his team bring to this industry gives us confidence that Emotix can scale, innovate and set new benchmarks in robotics and user experience. As part of our Nuture Capital vision, YourNest’s Director of Technology, Mr. Satish Mugulavalli will formally join the Emotix board.”
Miko started retailing through its channel partners in October 2017 and currently retails across more than 100 offline stores in India like Croma and Hamley’s. It is also widely available in the ecommerce marketplace like Amazon and Flipkart. Miko has found an attractive market in young parents and forecasts 40% demand coming from Tier 2 and 3 cities of India.
About Emotix
At a time when technology is increasingly invading Indian households leading to usage addiction on mediums like social media, browsing which is not meant for children, 3 IIT Mumbai graduates – Sneh Rajkumar Vaswani, Chintan Subhash Raikar and Prashant Iyengar founded Emotix to address the social needs of young parents and children. With a team of engineers, mathematicians, artists, neuro-psychologists they created Miko – an artificial intelligence based companion robot for children. It is India’s first companion robot capable of engaging, educating and entertaining children above 5 years. Miko helps them learn, play and develop skills.
As machines are created on human patterns, the distinction between physical, digital and biological will get blurred, resulting in breakthroughs that will solve grave consumer problems. Emotix is at the driver’s seat to steer this next age of social robotics.
About IDG Ventures
IDG Ventures India is a leading India-focused technology venture capital fund. The fund is part of IDG Ventures, a global network of technology venture funds with more than US $4 billion under management, over 200 investee companies and 10 offices across Asia and North America. The fund invests at seed, early and expansion stages in technology and technology enabled ventures across sectors like consumer media & tech, software, health-tech and fin-tech.
For more information, please visit: www.idgvcindia.com
About YourNest Venture Capital Fund:
YourNest is an early stage venture capital fund founded in 2012 by Sunil K Goyal, Sanjay Pande and Girish Shivani. It invests in proven revenue, Pre Series A Start Ups. The fund believes in the new connected economy represented by the Internet of Things, Robotics, Electronic System Design, Enterprise SaaS comprising Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Block Chain to name a few.
YourNest considers itself an “Enabler” of Entrepreneurs that provides Nurture Capital founded by five partners with extensive operational and leadership development skills. They have established experience in global exits on earlier investments – besides a well-known Advisor base. The fund has an enviable network of professionals, innovators, business leaders, coaches and mentors, and offers one of the best eco-systems for any startup.
YourNest’s Fund I of $15M, has been fully committed to 16 companies. The Fund was the “Youngest VC Fund” in India to be featured in the Top 10 Ranking by Returns in Preqin’s Ranking of VC and PE funds across Sectors and Vintage. “YourNest India VC Fund II” is focused on leveraging evident unmet funding needs ranging from $0.5-1M in its chosen domains.