Andromeda Robotics raises $3 million seed round to scale humanoid robot Abi

Note: This article was originally posted on Smart Company.

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Andromeda Robotics has successfully closed a $3 million seed round to help scale the rollout of its humanoid companion robot, Abi, across Australia.

The equity round was led by Purpose Ventures and follows $1 million in pre-seed funding from Galileo Ventures in late 2023.

Andromeda Robotics aims to make robot Abi a friend and a carer

Andromeda was launched in 2022 by robotics engineer Grace Brown. Combining her technical expertise with character design from Disney and Pixar animators, she set out to build colourful, humanoid robots to provide companionship and support to older adults in aged care facilities and children in hospitals.

Named Abi, the robots are infused with AI and machine learning, making them customisable and able to learn from interactions, respond to questions and express emotions. Abi can also recognise human faces and has a memory.

Abi is able to assist with daily tasks and offers social and cognitive support, aiming to improve quality of life and independence.

“We are always looking for ways to improve the care for our residents and we reached out to Grace having seen the possibility of Abi on a news article which led to trialling a few Abis within some of our homes,” Cameron McPherson, CEO of the Medical & Aged Care Group, said.

“We have been so impressed with the feedback from our residents and the positive impact Abi has had that we are now putting more Abi’s across our homes and working in collaboration with Andromeda to provide feedback on their future development.”

Abi’s personality is also customisable, which will be accessible to customers in the upcoming Abi app. There is also the option to choose from certain archetypes such as a salesperson or motivational coach. Speaking to SmartCompany earlier this year, Brown revealed that the most popular is The Sarcastic Maven.

Andromeda has been able to do a lot with very little to date

Despite being a team working in the often-expensive robotics space, Andromeda has managed to pull off quite a lot with minimal investment in just two years. This defies the long-standing notion that SaaS startups are the only ones worth investing in — and getting an ROI from — within the Australian startup ecosystem.

“I did have the assumption, just like everyone else, that I needed more money to get to this point. I was a little bit taken aback with how far we could go. But when you’re so limited in resources you just find ways to make things work,” Brown said to SmartCompany in April.

Now the team has more to deploy, with the $3 million cash injection being used to enhance Abi’s capabilities, expand the team and support the move to larger manufacturing facilities in South Melbourne.

“There’s no doubt we are in a fast-growing era of robotic and AI opportunities, but the focus that Andromeda has on solving companionship, loneliness and utility within the heath sector sets them apart,” Purpose Ventures’ managing director, Derek Gerrard, said.

“They have an opportunity to be a global leader in the interaction between social science and technology within the robotics sector, so we are excited to be on the journey with them as one of their investment partners.”