Austin startup Diligent Robotics says its medical delivery robot is ready to roll | Austin American-Statesman
Austin startup Diligent Robotics says its medical delivery robot is ready to roll
by Lori Hawkins
Austin-based Diligent Robotics says it has completed testing of its medical delivery robot and is ready to take the device to market.
To fuel the launch, the company said it has raised $3 million in seed funding.
Diligent Robotics was founded in 2017 with the goal of using artificial intelligence technology to build a robot that assists humans in their work environments.
Last year, the company introduced its first product, named Moxi, and began testing it in four U.S. hospitals including the University of Texas Medical Branch’s Jennie Sealy Hospital in Galveston.
Diligent Robotics said that after receiving positive results from Moxi’s trials, the robot is now ready to work with full-time hospital customers.
Moxi helps clinical staff with routine tasks that don’t directly involve patients. That includes gathering supplies and linens and delivering them to patient rooms, delivering samples to the lab, and retrieving items from supply rooms in nursing units.
Diligent Robotics said outsourcing that work gives staff more time for patient care and saves hospitals money on staff burnout and turnover costs. The company said it will generate revenue through a subscription model that is based on each hospital’s utilization of the robot, but declined to disclose details.
“Our vision is to improve the way people think about their work by giving them more time to utilize their unique human skills, and let friendly robot assistants efficiently take care of their chores,” said Andrea Thomaz, co-founder and CEO of Diligent Robotics. “We are proud to have the full support of our past investors as well as new key investors to accelerate the roll-out of Moxi robots into hospitals.”
The funding round was co-led by True Ventures and Ubiquity Ventures with participation from Next Coast Ventures, Capital Factory, Pathbreaker Ventures, Boom Capital, Grit Ventures, and individual investors.
The company previously received $2.1 million in venture capital and $725,000 in small business innovation research grants from the National Science Foundation.
“It is now obvious that robots will improve our quality of life, but only when implemented thoughtfully,” said Sunil Nagaraj, partner at Ubiquity Ventures. “I am lucky to partner with such an experienced and agile team as they use Moxi robots to make hospitals better places for patients, nurses, and doctors.”
Digital Robotics has 15 employees and is hiring in software engineering, operations, business development, and sales.