Telexistence, a Tokyo-based startup that makes shelf-stocking robots for convenience stores, has announced raising $170 million in its Series B funding round backed by SoftBank Group and contract electronics maker and assembler Foxconn.
Foxconn invested through its co-GP fund HH-CTBC Partnership. Japan-based venture capital investor Globis Capital also participated in the round, along with existing investors Monoful Venture Partners, KDDI Open Innovation Fund, and Airbus Ventures.
Telexistence, founded in 2017, designs and manufactures AI-powered robotic arms for the retail and logistics industry. The robots can stock refrigerated beverage shelves in convenience stores.
The company said it will collaborate with Foxconn to establish production technology where the Apple supplier will mass-produce the robot, dubbed Ghost. According to a Nikkei Asia report, Foxconn will produce 3,000 units annually to be delivered to 7-Eleven stores in Taiwan.
The fresh funding will also see Telexistence partnering with SoftBank Group unit, SoftBank Robotics Group, to commercialise its robotics products in North America.
According to the National Association of Convenience Stores, there are more than 150,000 convenience stores in the US as of 2023. In Japan, there are only 60,000 such stores.
As part of the funding round, SoftBank Robotics Group’s Kenichi Kent Yoshida and Globis Capital Partners’s Ryohei Nomoto will join Telexistence’s board of directors.
In 2021, Telexistence partnered with FamilyMart, one of the three major convenience store chains in Japan, through which the firm has deployed its robots to 300 FamilyMart stores.
“With the proud backing of our new partners, Telexistence 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,“ said Telexistence CEO Jin Tomioka.
Telexistence is a concept that was first proposed in 1980 by Dr Susumu Tachi, professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo and the chairman of the company.
In July 2020, the company announced Model-T, a remote-controlled robot for the retail industry, and introduced it at the Lawson Model-T Tokyo Port City Takeshiba Store.