We are pleased to announce that Key Venture advised Emotix on its $2M equity fund raise from IDG Ventues India, YourNest and a few HNIs, with participation from the existing investors Keshav Murugesh.
Key Venture was the sole financial advisor to Emotix on this transaction.
Sneh Vaswani, Co-Founder & CEO, Emotix said, “Key Venture is a great partner to assist companies with early stage fundraising. When it came to Emotix, they quickly understood the product, technology, immediate/long term business plan and identified + positioned the company to the best investors for our journey. We thank Nidhi for their support and recommend this wonderful team to all fellow startups.”
“In our view, Emotix is poised to record stellar growth. Emotix has identified a huge market and created a niche through its pipeline of unique offerings based on cutting edge innovation in robotics, artificial intelligence and psychology. It’s not only a seamless demonstration of filling gaps in the life of the consumer but also an attempt to revolutionize man-machine interaction. These considerations and the attractive growth potential excited us to invest in Emotix,” – Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Managing General Partner, IDG Ventures India
“Singularity University predicts by 2022 Robots are commonplace in most middle-income homes, able to recognize face, mouth and hand gestures. And by 2028, Robots will have real relationships with people; they supporting the care of ageing, personal hygiene and food preparation. YourNest has a similar belief. Emotix is a great find, they demonstrate deep expertise and understanding in Robotics and AI. ‘Key Venture’ led by Nidhi played the role of effectively guiding the founders for the conclusion of the pre-series A round. We hope Key Venture keep playing the role of matching best finds with the right Investor in the ecosystem.” – Sunil K Goyal, Managing Director & Fund Manager, YourNest Venture Capital
The Founders were originally backed by Angel investors led by Keshav R Murugesh, Industry evangelist and Group CEO of NYSE listed, WNS Global Holdings.
Commenting on the funding, Nidhi Saraf, Founder & CEO, Key Venture, said “Robotics & AI is the next big thing in India and finding a disruptive startup is our mission. Emotix is one of the most competitive startups in the robotics space. Their unique engagement model catering to children with leading-edge technology is a niche in itself. We believe there is a huge potential for Emotix in India and across borders.
About Emotix
At a time when technology is increasingly invading Indian households leading to usage addiction over online medium like social media – which is not right for the children – 3 IIT Mumbai graduates – Sneh Rajkumar Vaswani, Chintan Subhash Raikar and Prashant Iyengar founded Emotix to address the social needs of young parents and children. With a team of engineers, mathematicians, artists, neuro-psychologists they created Miko – an artificial intelligence based companion robot for children. It is India’s first companion robot capable of engaging, educating and entertaining children above 5 years. Miko helps them learn, play and develop skills.
About Key Venture
Key Venture is an Investment Banking firm focused on raising Angel to Series B capital for early and growth stage companies from HNIs, VCs, PE, Family Offices, Institutional and Strategic Investors. Key Venture is also working in tandem with top-notch corporate houses to leverage their experiential learning in the Startup Ecosystem.
Within 8 months (Aug’17-Mar’18) of its operation they have successfully advised & closed two transactions.
Key Venture is led by Industry veteran Nidhi Saraf with 10+ yrs of Startup Investment & Advisory. Been associated with leading Angel Networks of India, Indian Angel Network (IAN), Intellecap Impact Investment Network (I3N), Mumbai Angels (MA) and a Startup, The Wild East Group (creator of Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan’s Lifestyle brand, HRX). She is an active angel investor, mentor, advisor and speaker at premium Institutions of IIT, IIMs and alike.