Floor-cleaning robot firm raises cash
Avidbots has raised $23.6 million in Series B funding led by returning investor True Ventures. To date, Avidbots has raised $36 million in venture capital financing.
Avidbots is a fast-growing company that designs and builds autonomous connected robots. While most robotic floor-cleaning machines are simply existing manual models retrofitted with hardware and software that allows them to travel a few pre-programmed routes, Avidbots Neo is said to be the first purpose-built commercial robotic floor scrubber that uses AI to optimise performance.
Its first product is Neo, a robotic floor scrubber widely deployed in commercial locations around the world, including warehouses and manufacturing sites. Manufactured in Avidbots’ 40,000 sq ft facility in Kitchener, Ontario, Neo is in use today in over a dozen countries.
“With strong worldwide demand for our Neo industrial cleaning robot, Avidbots has been growing at a tremendous pace, and we’re excited to announce the financial support of world-class investors such as True Ventures, Next47, and GGV Capital as we enter into our next phase of expansion,” said Faizan Sheikh, CEO and co-founder of Avidbots. “With this new funding, we will accelerate investment in talent acquisition, engineering, marketing, and sales to bring our cutting-edge robots to more customers worldwide.”
“We invest in industrial automation and robotics companies that have thought deeply about which types of work are best suited for machines,” said Rohit Sharma, partner at True Ventures. “Repetitive, tedious work like commercial floor cleaning is an effective area of initial focus and we’re thrilled to support Faizan and his team as they pioneer this space.”
