GenRobotics Innovation which develops robotics and Artificial Intelligence -powered solutions for hazardous working conditions has attracted investments from Chennai-headquartered technology company Zoho Corporation to a tune of Rs 20 crore (approximately $2.6 million).
This investment is Zoho’s seventh in Indian startups. Previously, Zoho had invested $5 million in Bengaluru-based Voxelgrids, which builds Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners in India, in September 2021.
The company had also invested $10 million across nearly five deep-tech startups over the years including automated visual inspection company Zentron Labs, medical device maker vTitan, publishing company New Horizon Media and fab-less semi-conductor company Signalchip, according to media reports. Zoho along with TVS Motor Company has also backed electric vehicle maker, Ultraviolette Automotive.
GenRobotics is bringing robotic innovation in waste recycle management
“Building such technological competencies and critical know-how locally can help foster sustainable growth across key sectors, like industrial manufacturing, healthcare, and energy, in turn making the country economically stronger and self-reliant,” said Vembu.
He added, “Making this a reality requires focused, long-term investments that support home-grown deep-tech startups through intensive R&D and engineering phases, and enable them to bring their ideas to the market. Looking at how far they have come already in this journey, Genrobotics‘ vision resonates with us at Zoho and we are happy to fast-track their efforts and support them in their mission to end manual scavenging.”
“We have backed a variety of companies and this would be the seventh. We are not actively scouting for investments, and these happen because the founders of these companies share a philosophy similar to Zoho,” Sridhar Vembu, CEO and Co-founder of Zoho Corp says.
The investment in Trivandrum based robotics company ZenRobotics are part of Zoho’s initiative to nurture the tech ecosystem in India. “Nurturing a thriving deep-tech ecosystem in India is one of Zoho’s priorities and the investment in Genrobotics is a continuation of that commitment,” said Vembu, in a statement issued by the company.
Genrobotics was founded in 2015 by Vimal Govind MK, Arun George, Nikhil NP and Rashid Bin Abdulla Khan. The company’s flagship product is the Bandicoot robot which helps clean confined spaces such as sewer manholes, sewer wells, storm water manholes, oily water sewers and storm water sewers in refineries. The company has also ventured into the healthcare space with the launch of G Gaiter – a robot-assisted gait training solution for recovering paraplegics.
