Agritech robotics firm Niqo Robotics raised $9 M from Brida Innovation Ventures

The agritech robotics company Niqo Robotics, formerly known as TartanSense, has raised $9 million, or Rs 74.7 crore, in a new funding round headed by Brida Innovation Ventures. The Bengaluru-based company has received new funding following a three-year break.

According to a regulatory filing obtained from the Registrar of Companies, the board of Niqo Robotics has approved a special resolution to issue 8,577 preference shares at a price of Rs 87,090 each in order to raise Rs 74.7 crore.

Bidra Innovation Ventures contributed a total of Rs 41.5 crore, and Omnivore Partners, an existing investor, also contributed Rs 33.2 crore to the round.

According to media reports, the company’s post-money valuation is approximately Rs 290 crore, or $35 million.

After the new proceeds were received, Brida Innovation and Blume Ventures held the next-largest shares with 18% and 10.7%, respectively, after Omnivore Partners emerged as the largest external stakeholder with 25.7%. More than 25% of the business is owned by its lone founder, Jaisimha Rao.

In order to cut expenses and boost profitability, Jaisimha Rao founded Niqo Robotics in 2015. The company specializes in building small agricultural robots equipped with AI-driven computer vision technology.

The company declared in March of last year that it was rebranding to Niqo Robotics.

Including its $5 million Series A round from FMC, Omnivore, and Blume Ventures in August 2021, Niqo Robotics has raised $16 million to date. In 2019, the company also secured a $2 million Seed round.

With just Rs 1.3 crore in revenue for FY23, the nine-year-old company’s Indian arm stayed mostly in the pre-revenue stage, even though the company would reveal its FY24 numbers later this year. In the fiscal year that ended in March 2023, its losses increased by 2X to Rs 9.8 crore at the same time.