Airbus Ventures led the investment round with participation from existing and new investors, KDDI Open Innovation Fund, Innovation Platform for the University of Tokyo (U Tokyo IPC), DEEPCORE Inc, Monoful Inc. (Group company of GLP Japan), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), JTB Corp, Maeda Corporation and Mizuho Capital Co., Ltd.. TX Inc. has also raised debt financing from MUFG Bank.
(Funding amount undisclosed.)
Airbus Ventures Partner, Lewis Pinault will join TX Inc.’s Board of Directors as an external board member.
TX Inc. develops remote-controlled robots, Wings of Liberty, that release humans from physical constraints and corporate activities from revenues’ regressive effects, utilizing Telexistence® technology, robotics, telecommunication, VR, haptics and AI. This round of financing will help the company accelerate its product and business development as well as recruit the best talent on the planet. TX Inc. continues to push the fundamental state of art forward.
– Comments from investors
Dr. Lewis Pinault, Airbus Ventures Partner in Tokyo remarks, “At Airbus Ventures we’re particularly excited to see this brilliant convergence of all the strengths of the University of Tokyo’s Tachi Lab, the superbly relevant capabilities of our co-investors in telecom connectivity, AI and robotics, and above all the technical and entrepreneurial wherewithal represented by Telexistence’s founders and diverse, richly talented team.”
Airbus Ventures’ CEO Thomas d’Halluin adds, “We’re proud to lead this important round and join the board of a company pioneering the actual commercial deployment of a human/ robotic avatar capability, and we look forward to promoting the many potential Telexistence applications throughout our Airbus mothership network.”
Naohiro Mizumoto, Principal at U Tokyo IPC remarks, “Telexistence, as indicated in the company name, is a concept proposed by Dr. Susumu Tachi, Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo 38 years ago, and has been studied for many years. The concept and application of telexistence cover a broad spectrum, however, we believe that the automation application has the potential to transform the current concept of robots, as it has a completely different approach in bringing automation to industries. There are still obstacles to overcome, but together with CEO Jin Tomioka and the team, U Tokyo IPC aims to pursue this quest.”
Eiji Toyokawa , Group Leader at KDDI Open Innovation Fund remarks, “We are very excited to have participated in TX Inc.’s Series A round. KDDI will create new values by promoting co-creation of robotics businesses in the 5G era, together with TX Inc..”
Hiro Watanabe, Manager, Incubation & Investment at DEEPCORE Inc. remarks, “We highly value the capabilities that CEO Jin Tomioka and the TX Inc. team has in technology, product design and business development. DEEPCORE is committed to supporting the company’s mission to solve industry problems through their remote-controlled robots.”
Yosuke Fujioka, President, Monoful Inc. remarks, “We highly value TX Inc.’s remote-controlled robots and its technology, and anticipate this will become a solution for the pressing issue of lack of labor in the logistics field.”
– Lewis Pinault Biography
Dr. Lewis Pinault is an Airbus Ventures Partner based in Tokyo, managing the Asia Pacific region, and now joins the board of Telexistence. Previously, Lewis was a NASA researcher, and Financial Institutions Partner at Coopers & Lybrand in Singapore and Hong Kong, beginning his early consulting career at The Boston Consulting Group in Tokyo. His lifelong passions for exploring the oceans and space seeking the most advanced technologies available first brought him to Asia as an engineer and corporate planning analyst with Nihon Kokan. In Japan Dr. Pinault also serves as a director on the board of satellite ground stations innovator Infostellar.
Lewis earned his bachelor of science at MIT, completed his MSc at London School of Economics as a Fulbright Scholar, and was a NASA Space Grant Fellow at the University of Hawaii, where he completed his juris doctorate in international law and planetary geophysics.
Reference: About the Telexistence® technology
Telexistence® is a concept of using a remote robot as his or her extended being, to release humans from space-time constraints. It was first proposed by Dr. Susumu Tachi, Professor Emeritus Professor of the University of Tokyo in 1980. It is an evolutionary form of a master-slave robot system where the operator receives sensor information from the remotely located robot and controls the robot to conduct remote tasks.
It is based on the knowledge, technology and know-how of robotics, virtual reality, telecommunication, human interface, cognitive psychology such as humanoid robot mechanism, control, visual, auditory, tactile sensing, human movement measurement, visual, auditory, tactile presentation to humans and data transmission.
＜About Us＞
Company ：Telexistence Inc.
Address ：2-19-5 3F, Nishishinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Representatives ：Jin Tomioka, CEO
：Charith Fernando, CTO
Established ：January 23, 2017
URL ：https://tx-inc.com
＜Inquiries＞
Email ：info@tx-inc.com
