Israeli social companion robot ElliQ gets funds boost

Intuition Robotics, the developer of ElliQ, a social companion robot, said Tuesday it raised funds from strategic investor iRobot Corp. and equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd, bringing the total funding in the company to $6 million.

Ramat-Gan, Israel-based Intuition Robotics will hold a first live demonstration of ElliQ, the robot the company hopes will become a companion for older adults, at the 2017 OurCrowd Global Investor Summit on February 16 in Jerusalem.

The new investors join Terra Venture Partners, which led the Intuition Robotics seed round, as well as other original investors including Bloomberg Beta, Maniv Mobility, and additional private investors.

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iRobot Ventures is the strategic investment arm of iRobot, a global consumer robot company. OurCrowd is a Jerusalem-based global equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors.

Intuition Robotics also said it will open its US headquarters in Silicon Valley this year to recruit employees and start local marketing operations.

“Intuition Robotics’ ElliQ is an exciting advancement in cognitive computing and human-robot interaction,” said Hanns Anders, director at iRobot Ventures. “iRobot has been a longtime proponent of the development of robotics technologies to support the world’s aging population. The advances being made by Intuition Robotics are critically important to keeping this important population active and engaged.”