Chip maker Qualcomm Inc. announced that Ark Robot had won the QPrize and will received $350,000 in equity funding. The announcement was made during the Make in India event, held last week in Mumbai.
Ark Robot offers three variants of its warehouse automation robot systems, which have an accuracy of 0.7mm, a load lifting capacity of 250kg and can clock speed 4 Km an hour. Its robots have applications in automation of fulfillment centers and warehouses in the e-commerce industry.
The company was developed by iFuture Systems, which was founded in 2008 as an industrial automation company. The company is headed by Rajesh Manpat, who is also the inventor of the Ark robot, which is still awaiting its patent approval.
Arkrobot is currently offered to Indian market and the startup is looking to expand its offering into U.S. and European markets shortly.
"This is a part of Qualcomm $150 million committed investments in India when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Silicon Valley last year," Qualcomm Ventures vice-president Karthee Madasamy said. "Through the India fund, we have so far invested in three companies and the winner of QPrize would be the fourth," he added.
Qualcomm Ventures has been present in India since 2007 and has been actively investing in the Indian startup ecosystem. It has been holding the QPrize competition since 2009 to identify the industry’s most promising early-stage startups. They have scripted several success stories like Fitbit, Waze and Capillary, among others. Recently the company announced a Qualcomm Design in India Initiative Qualcomm.
