[Funding alert] Marine robotics company Planys raises $1.6M in pre-Series A round
IIT Madras-incubated Planys Technologies has raised $1.6 million in pre-Series A round of funding from a group of investors.
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IIT Madras incubated marine robotics company has raised $1.6 million from a group of investors including investor network Kieretsu Forum, Lets Venture and Dutch oil and gas major Shell. Returning investors ONGC Startup Fund, Ranjan Pai’s family office MEMG, Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan also participated in the round.
Founded in 2015 by IIT Madras alumnus Tanuj Jhunjhunwala, Vineet Upadhyay, Rakesh Sirikonda, and faculty from the institute, Prabhu Rajagopal and Krishnan Balasubramanian, the company had previously raised $2 million in 2018.
The company will utilise the current round to boost its research and development, international expansion and to develop new software-assisted underwater asset management product.
The company provides technology to facilitate underwater asset inspections across sectors such as maritime, infrastructure and energy sectors, using Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles, offering services such as videography, live streaming, inspection, marine growth cleaning, among others. The company has developed over eight products and has filed over 20 patents.
“Planys is driven by research and focuses on customers’ experience. We cater to very traditional industries that own large scale assets worth trillions of dollars and can be difficult to monitor consistently,” said Tanuj Jhunjhunwala, Co-founder and CEO of Planys, in a statement.
He further added, “They require digital solutions to increase operational efficiency and detect defects in a timely manner. Our data analytics and digital reporting platform, in particular, combined with our underwater robotics and NDT expertise, is a game-changer.”
The company was also selected by Qualcomm for its Design in India challenge, enabling Internet of Underwater Things with the technology giant’s 5G capabilities for data collection and transmission across water-air mediums.
Edited by Kanishk Singh