August 24, 2026: Hyderabad based Physical AI startup WATER has raised $2.5 million in seed funding, marking its latest push to develop technology that allows physical surfaces to respond to human movement and changing conditions.
WATER founded in 2024 by Teja Vinukollu and Haneesh Mourya Desu, said it will use the new capital for technical validation as it develops what it describes as an intelligence layer for adaptive surfaces.
The company is building its technology around VORTEX, a foundational model designed to interpret interactions between the human body and its physical surroundings. Its initial products include FLOW, an adaptive chair focused on posture, movement and load, and CAMA, a bed designed around sleep, recovery and respiration.
The startup’s approach combines sensing, decision making and physical actuation, allowing a surface to respond to the person using it in real time. The company plans to apply the underlying technology beyond furniture, including potential use cases in automotive and aviation.
WATER to build Physical AI systems for adaptive surfaces
“Our thesis is simple: intelligence in the physical world should upgrade the human being at the centre of it,” Teja Vinukollu, Founder and CEO of WATER, said in a statement. “We call that layer Bio Physical Intelligence. The body is constantly telling the surfaces it lives on what it needs, and VORTEX is the first model built to listen and respond.”
The funding comes as Physical AI continues to attract capital in India’s deeptech ecosystem. However, adaptive intelligent surfaces remain an emerging category, with startups still working to establish technical performance, commercial applications and scalable business models.
Recent funding activity points to broader investor interest in technologies that connect artificial intelligence with physical systems. Invisel recently raised Rs 4 crore, while Bengaluru based Mowito secured $3 million in pre seed funding for Physical AI foundation models aimed at industrial robotics.
Flo Mobility raised $2.5 million in a pre Series A round to expand autonomous solutions for construction, while Yaanendriya secured Rs 15 crore for sensing, navigation and autonomous control technologies targeting robotics and aerospace.
For WATER, the next stage will be less about demonstrating the concept and more about proving whether its adaptive surface technology can move from early products such as chairs and beds into larger, technically demanding markets. The latest capital gives the company additional runway to validate that proposition.
The round was led by early stage venture capital firm Endiya Partners, with participation from badminton coach Pullela Gopichand, investor Rohit Chennamaneni, Nandan Reddy and other angel investors.
Founded in 2024 by Teja Vinukollu and Haneesh Mourya Desu, WATER has developed VORTEX as the shared foundational model behind its two products—FLOW, an adaptive chair, and CAMA, an adaptive bed. FLOW focuses on posture, movement, and load during seated interaction, while CAMA focuses on sleep, recovery, and respiration.
