Japan-based robotics and medical device developer Meltin MMI has secured $17.7m in funding from investors including pharmaceutical company Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and insurance provider Dai-ichi Life.
SBI Investment, a venture capital subsidiary of financial services firm SBI Group, also participated in the round.
Founded in 2013, Meltin is developing an avatar robot called Meltant which uses bio-signal processing and robotics technology to precisely replicate the movements of its human controllers.
The company emerged from an incubator owned by University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo. It will use the funding to build a prototype of Meltant and to invest in its medical device business.
The funding follows a $2.1m series A round in December 2017 reportedly backed by Mirai Creation Fund, a partnership between carmaker Toyota and financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC).
The series A round also featured incubator Japanese Organization for Medical Device Development and the SMBC-backed Real Tech Fund. Meltin had received an undisclosed sum in a 2016 seed round backed by logistics services provider Globalink and Real Tech Fund, according to The Bridge.