Grishin Robotics Fund concluded its first deal in robotics

Investment fund Grishin Robotics, created by Dmitry Grishin, a co-founder and CEO of Mail.Ru Group, announces its first investment. $250K was given to Double Robotics which produces world's first personal robots with the ability to teleconference for a wide audience. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The investment will be spent mostly on the expansion of production, hiring engineers and further development of the product.

Double Robotics Company (CA), founded in 2011 and recently left business accelerator Y Combinator, is the creator of a personal robot called Double iPad Robot. The robot allows its owner to be present anywhere remotely: two-wheeled self-propelled rack keeps an iPad tablet, which is controlled remotely by a user of another tablet. It is possible to adjust the height and angle and also remotely. The development costs $2499, by pre-order - $1999. The robot can be used for various purposes: video conference, video surveillance, in public health, at museum tours, etc.

Double Robotics received 600 orders from 44 countries a month after the launch of the new technology. Their total cost is $1.2M. The clients of the company are 24 universities as well as 17 companies of Fortune 500.

Dmitry Grishin says that the investment in Double Robotics fits in perfectly with the strategy of his fund, because the product is customer-oriented, it has already shown a high demand in the market and it is available to a wider audience. Grishin also notes good approach of the team of Double Robotics engineers to the design: They create very user-friendly things.

We are pleased to partner with Grishin Robotics, it is our biggest investor today - David Kahn says, a co-founder of Double Robotics. - We know about the new investment firm and the experience of Dmitry Grishin in robotics since June 2012, when his venture fund was set up. We spoke to him and were impressed by his deep knowledge of robotics industry.