Taiwan-based manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has invested in Japanese robotics start-up Telexistence Inc (TX) by participating in its latest round of fundraising, with plans to work with it to jointly produce the next-generation robot model: “Ghost.”
Telexistence said in a statement yesterday that it completed its Series B round of fundraising, securing US$170 million.
In addition to the lead investors in previous funding rounds, such as Monoful Venture Partners, KDDI Open Innovation Fund and Airbus Ventures, Telexitence said it has also secured financial support from HH-CTBC Partnership, Softbank Group (SBG) and Globis Capital Partners.
Photo: Ann wang, Reuters
HH-CTBC Partnership is also known as Foxconn Co-GP Fund, which was set up by Hon Hai and Taiwan’s CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控).
However, Telexistence, a developer of remote-controlled robotics, did not disclose other financial details about the latest funding round.
After obtaining funds from Hon Hai, Telexistence would initiate its collaboration with Hon Hai to establish a production technology to carry out commercial production for its next-generation robotics model, “Ghost,” the company said.
In addition, Telexistence entered into a strategic business partnership agreement with Softbank Robotic Group Corp, a subsidiary of Softbank Group, to promote their business collaboration globally, with a focus on accelerating commercialization in North America, it said.
“With the proud backing of our new partners SBG and Foxconn, TX increases its commitment to accelerate the rapid expansion of its existing robot operations and drive the development of robots with human-level versatility, which is the goal of anyone involved in robotics,” Telexistence CEO Jin Tomioka said in the statement.
“With this latest funding, we aim to amplify our search for top, diverse talent to enhance our global capabilities at scale,” Tomioka said.
Telexistence, which was established in 2017, in 2021 announced a partnership with FamilyMart, one of the three largest convenience store chains in Japan, where it deployed robots to 300 FamilyMart stores across the country.
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