Synopsis
ET writes how robotics AI startups are seeing increased investments, signalling growing confidence in this space in India.Even though the funding in this space may be smaller than that received by start-ups in the foundation or the application layer, the activity is certainly picking up.
Physical AI startups raised $42 million just in the first quarter of 2026 as investors focus on robotics and related areas for funding.
Deals in 2026 so far include $28 million funding for Unbox Robotics, apart from investments in robotics hardware startup Armatrix as well as robotics inspection and maintenance company Octobotics, which raised $1.13 million.
Startups such as CynLr too are looking to raise funds. In India, this growth has come on the back of rising awareness and acceptance of the use of robots, maturing manufacturing ecosystems and the reducing cost of hardware, enabling industry growth. The robotics industry is at an inflection point and is a key area of interest for Mela Ventures as AI moves into this space, said managing partner Krishnakumar Natarajan.
AI has made the design of complex systems easier, said Pranav Pai, managing partner, 3one4 Capital. In addition, the supply chain ecosystem is more efficient with the cost of components such as batteries and motors coming down by 20-30%, though the cost of GPUs and memory has gone up.
What’s changed is increasing awareness and the willingness to embrace new technologies and replace production operators and laborious tasks with robots, said James Davidson, chief artificial intelligence officer, Teradyne Robotics, a US-based company.
As a result, industries such as automobiles and heavy machinery are spending more on technology and looking at increasingly using robots along with humans on factory floors. More robots are showing up on Indian shop floors. The International Federation of Robots report for 2025 said India had 9,120 units installed in 2024, up 7% from 2023, putting it sixth in the world after Germany, South Korea, the US, Japan and China. Hence the emergence of enabling startups in the country.
These include FPV Labs and Objectway, which collect data for training robots, and infrastructure startups such as AuraML. Cofounder Ayush Sharma said AuraML is building a multimodal platform that can simulate a real-world environment in which companies test systems before deployment.
For instance, if a company wants to deploy a robot in a warehouse, by uploading the floor plan and other particulars of the factory, the platform will be able to simulate real-world conditions including dust, other robots and lighting, for testing before deployment. “If you were to build a digital factory, it would take six months to a year but our model can do it in 10-30 minutes,” he said. The company has raised $1 million in seed funding from investors such as DeVC and Indian Angel Network.
The global trend on physical AI is however significantly bigger. Companies such as Figure AI, a humanoid robotics startup, and Agility Robotics have raised as much as $1 billion and $641 million, respectively.
Challenges
While momentum is undeniable, founders said that building a robotics company in India comes with challenges. A Bengaluru-based founder said that India lacks foundational AI research and talent density needed for the ecosystem to scale and mature.
Pai of 3one4 Capital said customers are another big challenge. While automotives and heavy engineering sectors are investing in the technology, bigger customers such as public sector units (PSUs) are not. That contrasts with countries like the US, where government agencies are scaled customers of startups and give large contracts.
“The Indian government does not have a large grant system in India unlike the US for R&D in physical computing,” he said. A larger and more efficient public R&D programme can make this more systematic, Pai added.
