India-based robotic firm Miko has raised $28 million, led by IIFL AMC, Mankind Pharma Family Office, Aroa Ventures – family office of OYO founder Ritesh Agarwal, Manish Choksi from Asian Paints and a clutch of global investors.
All existing institutional investors including IvyCap Ventures, Chiratae Ventures, YourNest Capital, Bruno E. Raschle from Schroder Adveq and long-standing digital evangelist Keshav R. Murugesh, (former chairman of National Association of Software and Services Companies) participated in the round. This round comes within four months of the previous round led by Ivycap Ventures and has witnessed a 200 per cent subscription from its targeted raise.
The new funds will be used to fund product development and strengthen global alliances as the company builds a strong global brand.
The company has now scaled its user base to more than 140 countries globally with the engagement rising three times through the pandemic. The company, which creates robotics-led emotionally intelligent solutions, is witnessing a massive surge in demand amidst the pandemic as parents are hunting for positive ways to engage kids in lockdown globally. Miko is also aiming for a portfolio of new products in the coming years.
Miko was started by three IIT Bombay graduates, Sneh R Vaswani, Prashant V. Iyengar and Chintan S. Raikar, along with global experts in engineering, mathematics, design and education.
“Miko has demonstrated strong retention metrics along with consistent and sustainable growth. We are clocking nearly a million interactions every 48-72 hours and are on track to register 500 per cent year-on-year growth in revenue. We are elated to welcome all our Series B investors in this journey and highly appreciate the support from all existing investors.” said Vaswani, Co-Founder and CEO, Miko.
After the success of the first generation of Miko, the company launched Miko 2, a robot that can see, hear, sense, express, talk, recognize faces, remember names, identify moods, initiate a conversation and learn from its own environment to intuitively develop a bond with a child. Miko 2 cuts across a complex need-gap of education, technology, entertainment and hence an enabler in effective parenting, like none other.
The company recently opened the Miko platform to allow child-focused content partners and developers to port their content on Miko and make it available to families on subscription. Subscription revenue is witnessing the fastest growth with nearly 50 per cent of topline to be subscription revenue over the next three years.
“With a global play and sound fundamentals, they (Miko) have ensured a consistent growth trajectory in the years to come. Very excited to partner with them," said Vikrant Sibal, Senior Executive Vice President at IIFL AMC.
“The company has showcased consistent capital efficient growth amidst the pandemic. The founders, Sneh, Chintan and Prashant are very passionate about Miko and have successfully achieved multiple milestones. We are thrilled to be part of the onward journey,” said Rajeev Juneja, Mankind Pharma Family Office.
The Series B round was facilitated by Validus Wealth and Masterkey.
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