Melbourne-based humanoid robotics company Andromeda has raised $23 million in Series A funding, boosting valuation to $100 million for the developer of “the world’s most emotionally intelligent humanoid companion robot”.
The funding round was led by US-based Forerunner Ventures and supported by new investors Rethink Impact, Artesian, Main Sequence, Visible Ventures and Trampoline.
They join earlier investors Purpose Ventures, which led Andromeda’s seed funding round last year, and Startmate in what has been billed as the largest Series A round led by a woman in Australia this year.
The round has brought together a cohort of female investors including Forerunner’s Eurie Kim (the OURA chair), Main Sequence’s Alezeia Brown, Rethink Impact’s Heidi Patel and Artesian’s Ananya Sinha, all of whom Andromeda says are known for backing high-impact women-led startups with strong early portfolio success.
Andromeda was co-founded by Grace Brown and Yan Chen in 2022 on a mission to combat loneliness through the development of a humanoid companion robot known as Abi.
Brown, the Andromeda CEO, is a mechatronics engineer who was inspired during COVID lockdowns to create a companion robot for aged care residents. She joined forces with Chen and together they rapidly took the project from research and development to commercialisation and now expansion.
Brown says the latest funding round will accelerate the company’s expansion into the US while scaling operations and teams in Australia.
“This funding will see us expand into the US focusing on aged care initially, and in Australia it means we can fast track our waitlist and bring the magic of Abi’s companionship to more customers and partners in the aged care sector and other industries,” says Brown.
“We’re hiring across every area of our business in Australia from engineering to customer success while in the US, we’re particularly looking for creative and animation robotics specialists.”
The latest funding has been announced alongside the launch of the next-generation Abi known as Genesis Abi, which has been rebuilt with major upgrades that make her the first humanoid robot ready to support Australia’s workforce.
Andromeda expects the first deployment of Genesis Abi this month at a Mecwacare aged care home.
“Genesis Abi is fully autonomous,” says Brown.
“Care teams can direct Abi and set her daily schedule, and she’ll navigate the home independently – supporting staff to lead group activities, spending one-on-one time with residents, conversing in their preferred language, listening to their stories, and bringing that spark of human connection we all crave.
“We’re grateful to all our aged care partners who’ve co-developed Abi with us to support care teams in providing more companionship to residents, filling a void that simply can’t be solved by more staff alone.”
Andromeda says Abi’s role in providing residents with personal companionship is aimed at improving health and wellbeing while supporting care teams, but Brown sees broader opportunities ahead for the company.
“We believe the next mass technological adoption will be the home companion robot,” says Brown.
“With Abi, we’re leading that shift – starting in aged care where the need for meaningful connection is greatest.
“We’re at the frontier of emotion, character AI and social systems design, building a new kind of relationship that feels warm, helpful and profoundly human because the world needs more of that.”
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