Rapyuta Robotics raises USD 3 million in seed funding

Press release: January 26, 2015

Tokyo, Japan — Rapyuta Robotics (Chuo, Tokyo, CEO: Gajan Mohanarajah) raises JPY 351 million (approximately USD 3 million) in its first round of funding, led by Japanese robotics company Cyberdyne Inc. The funding will be used to develop market-specific robotics solutions in Japan, and to lay down the technical foundation for Rapyuta Robotics cloud robotics platform.

Funding participants in this round also include SBI Investment Co., Ltd., one of Japan’s leading venture capital firms; Fuji Creative Corporation, a subsidiary of Fuji Media holdings; and V-Cube Inc., the leader in Japan’s enterprise visual communications market.

“These strategic partnerships will significantly boost Rapyuta Robotics’ effort to bring its core technology to market,” said Rapyuta Robotics co-founder and COO Arudchelvan Krishnamoorthy.

A significant portion of the funding will be spent on expanding the talent pool at Rapyuta Robotics’ Zurich office, which has close ties to the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control (IDSC) at ETH Zurich. Rapyuta Robotics co-founders Gajan Mohanarajah (CEO) and Dominique Hunziker (CTO) as well a number of core members of Rapyuta Robotics’ management team are from this Swiss university research institute, which is known for its dynamic robotic systems, and which played a key role in the EU-funded RoboEarth project — an ambitious research initiative to develop a “world wide web for robots”.

“Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push towards the robot revolution is expected to double Japan’s robot-related market in the manufacturing sector and achieve a 20-fold jump in the non-manufacturing sector by 2020,” said Takeshi Goto, Director and Executive Officer of SBI Investment Co., Ltd. “I believe that Rapyuta Robotics can significantly contribute to this revolution with its Cloud Robotics approach, which significantly drives down the cost and increases the autonomy of robotic systems.”

“I am very excited about Rapyuta Robotics’ technology, especially their cloud robotics and control engineering efforts,” said Prof. Dr. Yoshiyuki Sankai, CEO of Cyberdyne Inc. “This has the potential for a big impact.”

Founded in Tokyo in July 2014, Rapyuta Robotics Co., Ltd. is an ETH spin-off that builds cloud robotics solutions. The company has offices in Tokyo and Zurich.

For inquiries regarding this press release, please send an email to pr@rapyuta-robotics.com

Originally published at www.rapyuta-robotics.com.