Invento Robotics Striving For “Apple” Status
Ever since the debut of the Mitra robot at the 2017 Global Entrepreneur Summit, the Bengaluru-based startup, Invento Robotics has been striving to accomplish even more.
Invento Robotics started in October of 2015 by Balaji Viswanathan, the company recently raised its round two funding led by Windrose Capital and ITI Growth Fund. Since the debut of Mitra, the company has developed an even smarter robotic companion, Mitri.
The startup is now looking to expand even further in the field now that they have Mitra and other robots in their arsenal. They already have one robot, Sakhi, that is working in a co-working space in Hyderabad called iSprout.
Viswanathan, who is a Silicon Valley veteran and former Microsoft executive, is striving for Invento Robotics to become the “Apple” of the robotics world. But in order to do this, his focus must be on the revenue and profits of the projects. He isn’t interested in the unicorn status that so many companies strive for, he is in it for the results from the long game. His philosophy seems to be pacing himself for the marathon instead of sprinting to win a race.
The goal of all his efforts is to come up with robotics that is smart enough to use in everyday roles. For example, one that can work in retail settings without any operational interference. The company is testing and implementing the LiDAR-based autonomous navigation system to try to accomplish these feats.
Right now, the challenge they are facing is getting the robotics to be able to converse fluidly with humans. The focus has been on contextual subject areas that are specific to the robot’s specialty.
The next big thing that Invento Robotics is launching is called the “Spody Robot”. This was supposed to debut in January, but the Coronavirus has stunted the release. The new debut is scheduled for April.
This is the robot that will be a shopping companion and can help guide customers through stores and find products in the retail setting.
