Ahmedabad-based robotics startup Ishitva raised $1 million in pre-series A funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures (IPV). Ishitva is an OEM operating in dry waste sorting technology using AI, ML, IoT industry 4.0 to solve the issue of sorting complex waste. The funds raised will be used for growing sales and expanding the R&D team.
Many waste management and plastic value chain players and veterans also participated in the round, including Kamaljyot Investments (subsidiary of Excel Industries Ltd), Gandhi Family from GRP, AVI Global Plast Private Limited, Anup Gulati COO at Quality Maritime Provider, Harinder Arya president & div CEO – Major Capex & Pressure Control at Joulon, Sanjay Kamlani, serial investor and founder of Pangea3 and Mohan Ayyangar, operations lead – GDS EY India.
“We will continue to invest in R&D along with deploying solutions across towns and cities in India. These AI enabled solutions will lead to increased recycling, enhanced data capture for better decision making for SBM and all stakeholders including recyclers and government agencies. Our aim is to enable high scale recycling of plastic, paper, glass, metal etc while helping the people working in the sector with tech, safety and better working conditions,” said Jitesh Dadlani, founder, Ishitva.
Ishitva currently offers a range of solutions including SUKA (AI powered air sorting), YUTA (AI powered robotic sorting) and Netra AI vision system, which helps in identifying waste and smart bins. Netra identifies waste, learns about its contents by capturing images and then scans for recyclable material.
Mitesh Shah, co-founder, Inflection Point Ventures, said, “The current generation is focusing on recycling and robotics. Ishitva are using advanced tech to sort out the generated waste and making the recycling ecosystem more efficient and productive. They envision making our planet a better place to live in by leveraging AI, ML and IoT, and we stand behind this vision confidently to help them grow further.”
Ishitva is IPV’s 33rd deal for 2021, as the venture platform plans to invest Rs 155 crore this year in 60+ startups. IPV has so far invested Rs 258 crore across 92 deals.
Source: business-standard.com
