Israeli 'loneliness' robot company raises $36 million

“In the future, robots will provide a more proactive, empathetic, and personalized user experience,” said Colin Angle, CEO of investor iRobot.

MusashiAI's artificial intelligence-controlled visual inspection robot. (photo credit: MUSASHIAI)
MusashiAI's artificial intelligence-controlled visual inspection robot.
(photo credit: MUSASHIAI)
TEL AVIV - Intuition Robotics, a developer of digital companion technologies, said on Thursday it raised $36 million in a funding round led by Sparx Group and OurCrowd, bringing the company’s total financing to $58 million.
​Additional investors in the round include: Toyota AI Ventures, Sompo Holdings, iRobot, Union Tech Ventures, Happiness Capital, Samsung Next, Capital Point a​nd Bloomberg Beta.
Intuition Robotics employs 85 people with offices in Israel, San Francisco and Greece. It said it will use the new funds to advance its technology and plans to expand the availability of its digital companion into domains beyond improving the lives of older adults and automotive.
“In the future, robots will provide a more proactive, empathetic, and personalised user experience,” said Colin Angle, CEO of investor iRobot.
Over the last 12 months, ​ElliQ​, the company’s social companion robot that aims to reduce loneliness, has spent over 10,000 days in older adults’ homes in the United States.
Intuition Robotics is also collaborating with automotive customers such as Toyota Research Institute.