Telexistence raises $20M (22-oku JPY) in Series A2 round of funding. Pioneering an Augmented Workforce Platform with Aims to Transform Retail and Logistics Industries; Expanding Product Development Team

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Telexistence Inc. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Jin Tomioka; hereafter “TX”), a leading innovator of remote-controlled robots with artificial intelligence, raised approximately $20M in a Series A2 funding round with multiple investors, led by a group company of Monoful Inc (hereafter “Monoful”).

In addition to existing investors – Monoful, Airbus Ventures, KDDI Open Innovation Fund, DEEPCORE and UTokyo IPC, several new investors participated in this round as underwriters (new investors are undisclosed). With the completion of the Series A funding round, TX has raised approximately $41M in total funding since its inception in 2017, and plans to use the funds to expand its product development team and accelerate product development and implementation for its expanding customer base in the retail store and logistics sectors.

Through this latest financing round, Monoful and TX have strengthened their partnership to further develop and implement the Augmented Workforce Platform (AWP) for logistics warehouse operations. AWP is a platform that enables workers in logistics warehouses to provide labor without being physically present at the warehouse. By providing AWP, TX is building a foundation that will allow workers to participate in the global labor market with greater convenience, safety, and cost-effectiveness. Through this effort, TX is preparing for the trial introduction of a remote-controlled robot to existing logistics warehouses under a partnership with one of the largest logistics providers in Japan. 

Currently, robots (especially industrial robots) are mainly used only in automaker factories and via general electric manufacturers. TX aims to expand the scope of robotics activities beyond the factory, transforming the fundamental nature of society. Ultimately, TX aims to create a society in which humans are connected, interacting, and evolving through network structures on multiple spatial and temporal scales.

To achieve this goal, TX will emphasize on: 

  • Innovation that evolves ideas into practical, credible reality rather than new inventions
  • Quick productization rather than a series of prototypes
  • Engineering concrete products for the world rather than research to find new discoveries
  • Action-oriented doers rather than deep thinkers
  • Practitioners who take on the challenge of solving real social problems rather than theorists who discover new laws in the field of research

TX will further strengthen the organization by seeking the most talented people from across the globe who share these aspirations.

Remote-Controlled Robotics Innovator Telexistence to Introduce Semi-Autonomous Robot Across FamilyMart Chain; Partnership in Collaboration with Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry to Launch in October 2021

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2021/6/4

In October 2021, Telexistence, Inc. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Jin Tomioka) and FamilyMart Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Kensuke Hosomi) will begin introducing Telexistence’s semi-autonomous remote-controlled robot and its Augmented Workforce Platform throughout FamilyMart retail stores, advancing FamilyMart’s operational infrastructure through groundbreaking remote-controlled robotic technology.

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Telexistence Begins the Trial Operation of its Remote Controlled Robot, Model-T, at a FamilyMart Store. Aims to Realize a New Labor-Saving Store Operation Platform

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2020/08/26

FamilyMart Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Takashi Sawada; hereafter FamilyMart) and Telexistence Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Jin Tomioka; hereafter “TX”) started trial operations of the TX robot Model-T and Augmented Workforce Platform (hereafter “AWP”) to build a new store operation model using remote control robot technology.

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Telexistence Announces Appointment of Yutaka Matsuo, Professor at The University of Tokyo, as the AI Technology Advisor

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2020/08/24

Telexistence Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Jin Tomioka; hereafter “TX”) today announced the appointment of Yutaka Matsuo, Professor at Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, as the AI Technology Advisor. 　

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Model-T, a Semi-Autonomous Remote-Controlled Robot, to be Introduced to Retail Stores and Aims to Realize Augmented Workforce Platform in the Retail Industry.

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2020/07/21

Telexistence Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Jin Tomioka; hereafter “TX”) today announced the development of “Model-T”, that uses the Telexistence® technology to enable the establishment of Augmented Workforce Platform (hereafter “AWP”) in the retail industry. 

Company and Model-T Introduction Movie：https://youtu.be/ReM6RDxg7-0

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Former Sony and Softbank Robotics America Aya Ishikawa appointed as Chief People Officer

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2020/04/30

Telexistence Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Jin Tomioka; hereinafter “TX”) has appointed Aya Ishikawa as its new Chief People Officer. Aya has extensive HR background with experience working as the Head of Human Resources for companies such as Sony and Softbank Robotics.

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Telexistence enters strategic alliance with LeaguerX to start building a foundation for business development in China

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2020/3/2

Telexistence Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Jin Tomioka; hereinafter referred to as TX) and LeaguerX Entrepreneurial Investment (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., (Headquarters: Shenzhen, China; representative Xiang Zheng, hereafter referred to as LeaguerX), has established a strategic alliance and will begin to cooperate in building and accelerating TX’s business development in China. LeaguerX is an affiliate organization of Leaguer Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Leaguer Group) which aims to provide customized services to overseas technology companies that seek to build an industrial base in China.

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Former Morgan Stanley and GROOVE X Shintaro Maeda appointed as CFO

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Telexistence Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Jin Tomioka; hereinafter “TX”) has appointed Shintaro Maeda as its new CFO. Shintaro comes from a extensive finance background. After working at Morgan Stanley for over 10 years, Shintaro joined a robotic startup called GROOVE X, where he led the funding initiatives there, successfully raising 8.5 billion yen in total before joining TX.


( Shintaro Maeda, second from the left )

Since the establishment of the business three years ago, with IPO in-mind, TX has been focusing on further accelerating growth by reinforcing its strategy around finance/business which also includes accounting/corporate governance and has decided to welcome Shintaro Maeda as CFO, who comes with rich experience in this area.

Shintaro graduated from Keio University in 2002 and joined Morgan Stanley Securities (currently Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities) shortly after that. For the past 13 years, he has worked in the Financial Market Development Division where he was responsible for developing financial products for life insurance companies and corporations. After leaving Morgan Stanley Securities in 2016, he joined GROOVE X Co., Ltd., a start-up company that develops family-type robots called “LOVOT”, as the first business-side staff member. From there, he led the 2nd to 4th equity financing rounds where he was able to secure a total of 8.5 billion yen (each of the procurement amounts were 1.16 billion yen, 4.35 billion yen, and 3 billion yen, respectively) . He also played a leading role in the overall optimization of the company during its expansion, specifically in the corporate management and organizational-structuring areas.

[Comments from Shintaro Maeda]

“To be able to operate a robot in a remote place and be able to move and interact with the physical surrounding as if you were actually there – a concept that is still considered to be something from a sci-fi movie or anime, the challenge will be developing that technology in a way that brings the most value to the real world and making that into a scalable business.  I am both optimistic and excited to be apart of a team, as CFO, of such exceptional talent, a group of people who have gathered from all parts of the world to help make the world TX envisions a reality.

My mission will be to drive TX’s sustainable business growth through creating value in areas of financial strategy/business management and to make sure to bring value to our shareholders and stakeholders.”

[Comments from Jin Tomioka, CEO]

“The reality is that even if you combine all the robot manufacturers in the world, the number of robots sold every year does not reach one million units.  Compared to other leading hardware products such as automobiles (100 million units sold), TVs (200 million units sold), and smartphones (350 million units sold), the unit sales of robots is still very small.  At volumes this low, it his hard to expect growth in certain key drivers important for the growth of this field.  Such as growth of talent, creation of new ideas and meaningful technological advancement.  As a result, you have a product that is expensive and sub-optimal for the world outside the factory.

We at TX, want to change this situation by focusing on attracting the top talents in other industries, people like Shintaro, which conventionally do not find there way into the robot industry.  As production volume of robots increase, there will be more opportunities together with better incentives to improve and innovate the design and manufacturing of robots.  This will lead to better performing robots at lower cost, consequently expanding the market, encouraging the industry to further develop.  In this way, as the production increases and cost of production decrease, we aim to achieve the ‘Manufacturer’s Maturity Curve’ early, in the world outside the factory.”

[Shintaro Maeda’s Profile]

2002/4         Morgan Stanley Securities (currently Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities)

2003/5         Lazard Freres K.K.

2004/3         Morgan Stanley Securities (currently Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities)

2016/9         GROOVE X, Inc.

2019/12 Telexistence Inc.

[Positions Currently Open]

・Robotics Cockpit Operation Manager

　URL: https://tx-inc.com/ja/career-jp/#toggle-id-1

・Frontend Engineer

　URL: https://tx-inc.com/ja/career-jp/#toggle-id-2

・Backend Engineer

　URL: https://tx-inc.com/en/career/#toggle-id-3

・Robot Software Engineer (Navigation/Localization)

　URL: https://tx-inc.com/ja/career-jp/#toggle-id-3

[About Telexistence Inc]

TX is a robotics company that develops remote controlled robots with artificial intelligence, with the mission to change robots, change the structure, and change the world. TX aims to develop a platform concept, “Augmented Workforce”, a platform that enables people to provide their workforce remotely, through robots.

[Company Profile]

Company Name: Telexistence Inc.

Location: 2-19-5 Nishi-Shinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Representative: Jin Tomioka, CEO

Establishment: 2017/1/23

Company HP: https://tx-inc.com

[Inquiries]

Email:  info@tx-inc.com

Contact name:  Matt Komatsu

Telexistence Inc. appoints Takeo Kanade, Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, as Artificial Intelligence Technology Advisor

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Telexistence Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Jin Tomioka; hereinafter referred to as TX Inc.) has appointed Takeo Kanade as its Artificial Intelligence Technology Advisor. Takeo Kanade is U.A. and Helen Whitaker University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the U.S. and is a world-renowned scientist in a wide range of fields including artificial intelligence and robotics.

TX Inc is confident that Dr. Takeo Kanade’s knowledge, experience and network will be crucial for not only the company’s success but also be an essential factor for Japan to again be at the forefront of technology in the world.

In conjunction with the announcement, we have created an advisor’s page on our website. Please find the advisor’s page here, https://tx-inc.com/en/advisor/

Comments from Takeo Kanade:

“I feel confident that by having a product that combines the controllability of robots with a futuristic technology like Telexistence together with a solution that enables implementation of that product into a scene so intimate to everyday human life like a storefront, can be the next breakthrough that shapes our near future. I look forward in seeing TX Inc’s continuous innovation and solid technological advancement. “

Dr. Takeo Kanade, Biography

Takeo Kanade is the U. A. and Helen Whitaker University Professor of Computer Science and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University in the US, Invited Distinguished Professor, Institute for Advanced Study, Kyoto University, and Senior Advisor at Center for Advanced Integrated Intelligence Research, RIKEN, in Japan. He received his Doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering from Kyoto University, Japan, in 1974. After holding a faculty position in the Department of Information Science, Kyoto University, he joined Carnegie Mellon University in 1980. He was the Director of the Robotics Institute from 1992 to 2001, and a founding Director of Quality of Life Technology Research Center from 2006 to 2012. He also founded the Digital Human Research Center in Tokyo and served as the founding director from 2001 to 2010.

Professor Kanade works in multiple areas of robotics: computer vision, multi-media, manipulators, autonomous mobile robots, medical robotics, and sensors. Dr. Kanade’s name is associated with several well-known systems and algorithms, most notably: the NAVLAB Autonomous Driving Car Project which led to the “No Hand Across America” demonstration in 1995; the Lucas-Kanade optical flow algorithm as one of the most fundamental and widely used algorithms in computer vision; and the EyeVision, a movie Matrix-like replay system used in Super Bowl XXXV, as a then-new currently-popular multi-camera sport media. He is one of the top computer scientists in terms of impact factor (h-index) with his more than 300 journal publications and more than 100 thousand citations.

Professor Kanade has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the United States, and also designated as a Person of Cultural Merit from Japan. Many awards he received include Kyoto Prize (2016), Franklin Institute Bower Prize (2008), IEEE Founders Medal (2017), ACM/AAAI Allen Newell Award (2011), and IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Pioneer Award (2006), IEEE PAMI-TC Azriel Rosenfeld Lifetime Accomplishment Award (2007), Joseph Engelberger Award (1995), Okawa Award (2007), and Tateishi Grand Prize (2010).

Company：Telexistence Inc.
Address：2-19-5 3F, Nishishinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Representatives ：Jin Tomioka, CEO
Established：January 23, 2017
URL：https://tx-inc.com

＜Inquiries＞
Email：info@tx-inc.com
URL ：https://tx-inc.com

Announcing Series A Funding, and Debt Financing from MUFG Bank

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Telexistence Inc. (headquarters: Tokyo, Japan; CEO: Jin Tomioka; hereinafter “TX Inc”) announced today that it has completed its Series A round of financing.

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