Israel-based digital companion developer Intuition Robotics has secured $36m in a series B round featuring iRobot, Sompo Holdings and investment vehicles for fellow corporates Samsung, Toyota, LKK Health Products, Union Group and Bloomberg.
Asset manager Sparx Group and crowdfunding platform OurCrowd co-led the round, which also featured investment firm Capital Point.
Insurer Sompo and robotics technology provider iRobot invested directly while carmaker Toyota, car distributor Union Group, wellness product supplier LKK, electronics producer Samsung and media group Bloomberg took part through Toyota AI Ventures, Union Tech Ventures, Happiness Capital, Samsung Next and Bloomberg Beta respectively.
Intuition is the creator of a companion robot dubbed ElliQ, which has been developed to interact with residents in old age homes. Its artificial intelligence platform, Q, is also the basis of an in-car agent on which it is working.
Jim Adler, Toyota AI Ventures’ founding managing partner, is joining Intuition’s board of directors in connection with the round, which the company said boosted its overall funding to $58m. The capital will support work on the technology’s cognitive AI capabilities.
Samsung Next, Sparx Group and VC fund Glory Ventures invested $2m in Intuition in January 2018, following a $14m series A led by Toyota AI Ventures and backed by Bloomberg Beta, iRobot, OurCrowd, Maniv Mobility, Terra Venture Partners and unnamed existing investors in 2017.
The company had closed a $6m seed round that included iRobot, Bloomberg Beta, Terra Venture Partners, Maniv Mobility and OurCrowd the previous year.
Photo courtesy of Intuition Robotics.
