Chiratae backs Indian robotics developer Miko

Additional participants in the round include Indian VC investor YourNest Venture Capital, the family office of Schroder Adveq founder Bruno Raschle, and several angel investors. YourNest co-led a $2 million funding round for Miko last year alongside Chiratae, then called IDG Ventures India. Miko will use the new capital for global market expansion, product expansion, and investments in research and development.

Founded in 2015 as Emotix, Miko focuses on the development of interactive robots that can be used to entertain and educate young children. The company claims its latest product, the Miko 2 robot, uses new advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology to interpret and react to visual and auditory cues, and can initiate conversations, recognize faces, remember names, and identify moods. Parents can purchase educational content and games to load into the robot, and can also use it for video chats with their children.

Miko has 120 employees in the US and India, and plans to launch Miko 2 in the US before the holiday season. The company hopes to enter the UK and the Middle East next year.

“The investment from our existing investors is a testimony of the trust and confidence that they have placed in us,” said Sneh Vaswani, co-founder and CEO of Miko, in a statement. “We’re excited to bring our AI-driven playful learning robots to international markets as a way to meet the needs of today's parents, who seek a positive and trusted gateway of technology which also caters to the learning and developmental needs of children.”

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Technology
• Early-stage
• India
• TMT
• Chiratae Ventures