Genrobotics, a Kerala-based startup developing robotics and artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions for social issues such as hazardous working conditions, has received a 20 crore investment from Chennai-based unicorn Zoho Corp.
The investment, according to Zoho, would enable Genrobotics in its objective to eliminate manual scavenging in India and offer safety and dignity to sanitation and oil and gas workers.
This investment is by Zoho’s objective to help the country build a deep-tech ecosystem.
The Bandicoot robot, touted as the world’s first robotic machine to clean confined places including sewer manholes, sewer wells, storm water manholes, oily water sewers, and storm water sewers in refineries, is Genrobotics’ primary offering.
Bandicoot robots are currently being used in 14 states including smart cities, refineries, multinational enterprises, townships, and housing colonies to eliminate the requirement for human entrance into manholes.
Genrobotics has just entered the healthcare industry with the debut of G Gaiter, a robot-assisted gait training system designed to help patients with paraplegia recover through improved rehabilitation experiences.
Genrobotics products are created and manufactured entirely in India as part of the Make in India initiative.
“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 Sridhar Vembu, chief executive officer and co-founder of Zoho.
“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. 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,” Vembu added.
Vimal Govind MK, chief executive and co-founder of Genrobotics, believes India will need more than one lakh robots to end manual scavenging in the country. “As we scale to fill the need gap, we estimate creation of nearly five-lakh jobs across the country. The investment from Zoho will help us to expand our advanced R&D infrastructure, build large-scale production facilities, hire more talent, increase our exports to ASEAN markets and expand our global footprints.”
