Corporates experience Telexistence’s series A

Telexistence, a Japan-based experiential robotics spinout of University of Tokyo, has secured billions of yen (¥1bn = $8.8m) in series A funding from investors including University of Tokyo’s Innovation Platform, according to TechCrunch.
National innovation agency Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), financial services firm Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Monoful, a telematics branch of logistics provider Global Logistic Properties, also backed the round.
Aerospace and defence company Airbus and telecoms firm KDDI took part through respective subsidiaries Airbus Ventures and KDDI Open Innovation Fund, while travel agency JTB, syringe maker Maeda Industry and Mizuho Capital, the investment arm of financial services provider Mizuho Bank, also participated.
Founded in 2017, Telexistence is working on remote-controlled robots that enable the user to experience the robot’s field-of-view and sense of touch through devices such as virtual reality goggles and smart gloves.
The robots are designed to let humanity experience remote areas without space-time constraints for purposes such as tourism, while also automating tasks such as retail display work and logistics operations.
Telexistence has built a prototype, dubbed Model-H, and is now preparing to develop a robot suited to mass production.
The series A capital will help the company progress its underlying technologies, which include hardware and software as well as communication and cloud capabilities.
JST previously backed Telexistence’s seed round of undisclosed size in May 2017 along with Open Innovation Fund and venture capital firm Global Brain, which has a fund-of-funds partnership with KDDI.