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 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 present 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 personal houses, assisted dwelling 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 outfitted with an optionally available caregiver app that permits the top person to call the pet, customise its performance and monitor person interactions.
The funds will probably be used to develop Tombot’s staff, 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 know-how,” Tombot CEO and cofounder Tom Stevens stated in an announcement.
“Over 300 million seniors world wide with dementia and gentle cognitive impairment are unable to take care of a stay animal at a time once they want the companionship of a pet greater than ever. Thousands and 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 have been primarily primarily based on qualitative responses collected through the research. Whereas most quantitative knowledge obtained within the overview usually 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 employees would possibly actively dislike them.”
Different corporations within the robotics area embrace tDiligent Robotics, which manufactures the autonomous medical assist robotic Moxi. In 2023, the corporate scored $25 million in new funding.
The Moxi robotic performs supply duties for hospital employees who aren’t patient-facing, together with delivering lab samples, bringing provides from central storage, delivering drugs, retrieving sufferers’ objects, distributing private protecting tools and transferring light-weight tools between models.
In 2020, Mind Navi developed a robotic to autonomously carry out nasal swab exams, aiming to stop cross-infections, shield healthcare employees and cut back pressure on healthcare programs.
The robotic helps to cut back staff-patient contact with extremely infectious ailments on the level of testing by autonomously navigating and safely amassing affected person samples.
It mechanically acknowledges the affected person’s facial construction and the placement 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 Cell Robots options firm for service industries akin 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 vitality.
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