By Dominick Rodrigues
Trivandrum/Mumbai Oct, 7: Trivandrum-based robotics company Genrobotics raised Rs 2.5 crores in ‘Pre Series A’ round from existing investors Unicorn India Ventures. Industrialist Anand Mahindra, who has invested in his personal capacity, has also joined as a new investor in this round along with SEA Fund. The round has been led by Unicorn India Ventures.
Vimal Govind, Co-founder CEO, Genrobotics said here recently that the funds raised will be used for further scaling up production of Bandicoot to meet growing demand in the process of eradicating manual scavenging, while also developing new products and R&D to leverage the technology for the health care segment.
He said Genrobotics has been working with the Central and State Governments towards eradicating ‘manual scavenging’ in India. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs & Smart City Mission India has ‘recognized’ the Automated Manhole cleaning robot Bandicoot 2.0 and, within a short span of time, have deployed “Bandicoot robots” across 11 States in the country with hundreds of sanitation workers going through the rehabilitation process. Soon after implementing this at Coimbatore Smart City, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs suggested and quoted “Bandicoot 2.0” as an excellent example for enabling +Zero Human-Intervention+ in the sewerage-cleaning process.
The Genrobotic’s startup’s young professionals’ attempt to robotize sewage cleaning had received a ‘shot in the arm’ when one of India’s biggest industrialists — Anand Mahindra — praised their innovation and expressed interest in helping them scale up.
Witnessing this aspiring team’s efforts in providing their services to the needy, Mahindra – as a motivator for youth and deep passion for philanthropic activities — offered total support on ‘ending manual scavenging through robotic scavenging’ and tweeted “There’s a lot of nervousness about the role of robots & AI in the future. But frankly, if robots can liberate people from this most degrading job in the universe, then I promise I will discard any doubts & always pray at the shrine of technology & robotics.”
Lauding Anand Mahindra’s support in their robotic venture, Govind said that the use of the Bandicoot highlighted the stinking realities of manual scavenging in India. “It was a great moment for us when Mr Anand Mahindra took a personal interest in favor of robotic solutions and offered his full support on implementing Bandicoots in each and every corner of India for ending this dehumanizing activity completely through the process of transforming Manual scavenging into Robotic scavenging.”
Expressing happiness at breaking their ‘own ground rules of not investing in just an idea’ in the case of Genrobotics, Anil Joshi, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, said, “When we met them 2 years back in Kerala, the prototype was ready and they needed funding for a commercial-ready product. We decided to back them as we saw the potential robotics can bring to certain socially-important issues — especially if the team backing the business is as passionate as we have seen in Genrobotics. We believe that they have developed a globally-relevant product and are already in talks with some international Governing bodies for its deployment. To facilitate their expansion plans, we have decided to back them up with additional funds.”
GENROBOTIC Innovations – a leading Robotics company in India – is on a mission of providing +better and safer working methods+ through using Robotics & AI in extreme & unsafe environments, and also for welfare of mankind. They primarily focus on designing and development of Robotic solutions to address the most relevant social issues and recently introduced their sister wing in bringing new perception for the country’s affordable Medical Mobility Research, while striving to achieve India’s prestigious mission of “Building Atma Nirbhar Bharat” and become part of the country’s greatest initiatives +Swachh-Bharath Abhiyan+ and +Make in India.+
Unicorn India Ventures is a Mumbai-based VC that was launched in 2015 by Anil Joshi and Bhaskar Majumdar. The Fund has also launched a UK-India cross-border fund — to fund UK startups that are looking to enter India — and have invested in 7 UK startups. From its Fund, UIV has invested in 18 companies like Inc42, Sequretek, Pharmarack, Genrobotics, NeuroEquilibrium, SmartCoin, Open Bank, Open app, among others. Unicorn India has also announced Fund II, which is a Rs 400 crore fund launched in 2019. It has also marked its first close of Rs 90 crores and has announced 4 investments.
