Diligent Robotics Wraps $30M Series B Funding Round

Diligent Robotics has raised more than $30 million in a Series B funding round, the Austin-based automation company said in a news release Monday (April 11).

Founded in 2017, Diligent makes service robots and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that let robots work within human environments. Their flagship product, Moxi, is a delivery robot for frontline healthcare teams.

“Stress and burnout have been a persistent problem in healthcare for years, creating a shortage of nurses and clinical staff,” the news release said. “But over the past two years, COVID-19 has accelerated this into a crisis moment, with projections of more than 1 million new nurses needed in the U.S. alone. More and more health systems are looking for automation to provide workforce augmentation at a critical time for this market.”

Diligent said the funds from this round will help it optimize its supply chain and design teams for “faster robot deployment” while also working to enhance interoperability and drive integrations with hospital infrastructure, electronic health records and clinical communications, which will let the company meet demands during the ongoing nursing shortage.

The Series B round was led by Tiger Global, and brings Diligent’s total funding to $50 million. Also taking part were existing investors including True Ventures, DNX Venture, Ubiquity Ventures, E14 Fund, Next Coast Ventures, Boom Capital, Gaingels and new investors including Cedars-Sinai Health Ventures.

See also: Zeta Surgical Nets $5.2M for Enhanced Surgical Navigation

Last month, surgical robotics and mixed reality company Zeta Surgical closed a $5.2 million funding round that it will use to complete the development of its neurosurgical navigation platform, Zeta, and its noninvasive focused-ultrasound system, ZetaFUS.

“The use of surgical guidance has been limited to long, operating room-based interventions, due to its invasiveness and complex deployment,” said Jose Amich, co-founder and CEO of Zeta Surgical, in the company press release. “Our goal is to provide physicians with a robust, fast and accurate guidance system deployable during any case, irrespective of where they are in the hospital or what hospital they are in.”