Japanese robotics company Telexistence (TX) has raised $170m (Y24.3bn) in its Series B funding round from SoftBank Group, HH-CTBC Partnership, and Globis Capital Partners.
The company’s existing investors Monoful Venture Partners, KDDI Open Innovation Fund, and Airbus Ventures also joined the round.
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Set up in 2017, TX is engaged in developing artificial intelligence-powered robots with a focus on logistics and retail industries.
In 2021, the company announced a partnership with convenience store chain FamilyMart to deploy its robots to 300 of FamilyMart’s stores.
Along with the funding, TX announced a strategic partnership with SoftBank Robotic Group Corporation (SBRG) and Foxconn, an electronics manufacturing company.
With an emphasis on speeding up the commercialisation in North America, TX intends to expand business collaboration through the relationship with SBRG.
The alliance with Foxconn is aimed at establishing production technology and mass-producing its next-generation robot, called “GHOST”.
Telexistence CEO Jin Tomioka said: “With the proud backing of our new partners SBRG and Foxconn, TX increases its commitment to accelerate the rapid expansion of its existing robot operations and drive the development of robots with human-level versatility, which is the goal of anyone involved in robotics.
“With this latest funding, we aim to amplify our search for top, diverse talent to enhance our global capabilities at scale.”
As a result of this investment, SBRG’s Kenichi Kent Yoshida, and Globis Capital Partners’ Ryohei Nomoto will join TX’s board of directors.
