Toyota invests in Elementary Robotics for its intelligent robot assistants

Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Toyota AI Ventures has made an investment in Elementary Robotics, a robotics platform startup which makes intelligent robot assistants, founded in 2017. The funding marks Toyota AI Ventures’ first investment as part of the call for innovation it launched this summer in partnership with the Toyota Research Institute.
The call for innovation program is designed to spur innovation by using a call-and-response approach to attract and invest in early-stage startups that are tackling specific problems in areas like artificial intelligence, automated driving, and robotics. The initial call sought out startups developing disruptive technologies and business models in robotics, specifically solutions aimed at improving mobile manipulation for assistive robots.