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Vayu Robotics, an AI firm that goals to supply high-quality, low-cost robotic methods, has emerged from stealth with $12.7 million in seed funding. The corporate plans to make use of the funding to scale product growth for AI robotics throughout completely different markets, together with last-mile supply, manufacturing facility automation, and automotive.
The spherical was led by Khosla Ventures and included participation from Lockheed Martin Ventures, ReMY Buyers, and others.
Vayu is a non-traditional robotics firm that’s taking a principles-first method to automation. It prioritizes price and ease of deployment with two key applied sciences: a basis mannequin for mobility, and a disruptive, low-cost sensing expertise that might change LiDAR in lots of mid-range purposes.
The corporate’s expertise sits within the convergence of two main tendencies within the business proper now. The primary is the rise of recent AI applied sciences which have enabled robots to carry out extra normal duties in a approach that they couldn’t earlier than. The second is that US firms are searching for to turn out to be much less reliant on abroad manufacturing by revitalizing home manufacturing capability and competitiveness. With this alteration, the demand for robotics and automation continues to develop.
Vayu’s expertise goals to allow the following wave of sustainable and accessible robots, most instantly for last-mile supply.
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“Vayu is poised to disrupt the market by creating the bottom price possession for robots with one of the best operational economics,” Anand Gopalan, CEO of Vayu Robotics, mentioned. “We now have constructed an extremely sturdy crew of engineers with experience in {hardware} and software program. With this newest spherical of funding, our crew is positioned to carry Vayu’s novel expertise to the market via our first prospects.”
Vayu’s expertise is predicated on three pillars: biology-inspired sensors, scalable machine studying, and purposeful design. These knowledgeable the creation of the corporate’s first merchandise, which embody Vayu Drive, a basis mannequin for mobility, Vayu Sense, a sturdy and cost-efficient sensor, and Vayu One, a full-scale supply robotic as-a-service.
The corporate’s founding crew contains Gopalan, the previous CEO of Velodyne Lidar, Mahesh Krishnamurthi, who has expertise at Lyft and Apple, and Nitish Srivastava, who has expertise at Apple and the College of Toronto.
“At Khosla Ventures, we guess early on daring concepts that could possibly be impactful to society,” mentioned Kanu Gulati, companion at Khosla Ventures. “In Vayu, we see a crew that is among the first to leverage superior sensing expertise for machines to have the ability to navigate the world in a approach they may not beforehand, taking robotics to a brand new place.”