Osaro, a US-based deep learning technology developer backed by mass media group Comcast and domestic robot producer iRobot, has secured $16m in its series B round.
VC funds King River Capital (KRC), Alpha Intelligence Capital and GiTV Fund joined VC firms Founders Fund and Pegasus Tech Ventures to provide the funding with unnamed strategic investors and existing backers.
Neither iRobot nor Comcast have been publicly identified as a participant in any of Osaro’s funding rounds but their corporate venturing units, iRobot Ventures and Comcast Ventures, are both listed as investors on the company’s website.
Founded in 2015, Osaro provides artificial intelligence software that facilitates industrial automation by helping robotics systems to perceive their surroundings more effectively and be controlled more thoroughly.
The company debuted its lead product, picking-automation software Osaro Pick, in Japan in 2018. It intends to put the series B funding toward hiring and international growth as it prepares to roll out a product-recognition tool called Osaro Vision for factories.
Megan Guy, a KRC co-founder who is also a partner at the fund, will join Osaro’s board of directors in conjunction with the round.
The series B round increased Osaro’s overall funding to $29.3m, it said. It raised $3.3m in seed capital from VC firm AME Cloud Ventures and angel investors Peter Thiel and Scott Banister in 2015 and added $10m from 37 investors in an April 2017 series A round, according to a securities filing.
Although it has not disclosed the series A investors, Osaro’s website also lists Acorn Pacific Ventures, Arab Angel Fund, Morado Ventures, Compound Ventures and individuals Sean Parker, Adam Weissman, Darian Shirazi, Daniel Loeb, Nicholas Berggruen and Elad Gil as backers.
Photo courtesy of Osaro Inc.
