Intuition Robotics announced today that it has secured a first closing of a new funding round amounting to $25 million, $20M in venture capital and $5M in venture debt, and led by Woven Capital, the growth fund of Toyota, with participation from Toyota Ventures, OurCrowd, Western Technology Investment, and additional investors. The funding will help the company meet surging demand for its AI care companion ElliQ across government aging agencies and healthcare organizations. It will also allow the company to deepen integrations into the healthcare system and help aging populations better connect with others, and better access much-needed products and services while reducing costs. 

Loneliness is an epidemic that can cause serious harm to health, with the U.S. Surgeon General recently advising that experiencing loneliness can increase the risk of death equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. The U.S. healthcare system is increasingly seeking solutions, with legislation recently introduced to create a national policy to promote social connection and address soaring rates of loneliness.

Intuition Robotics has pioneered ElliQ, an AI companion designed to enhance the lives of older adults by combating loneliness and promoting healthy and independent living. In an era dominated by groundbreaking technologies, ElliQ has consistently demonstrated its ability to engage users over time and positively impact the lives of older individuals with its proactive suggestions and conversational capabilities. ElliQ provides companionship and support for older adults through daily health check-ins, cognitive and physical activities, connection to family and friends, and more using a simple and intuitive interface. 

“Intuition Robotics is advancing the future of mobility for aging populations by offering human connection and access to goods and services that they couldn’t obtain otherwise,” said Nicole LeBlanc, a partner at Woven Capital who is also joining the company’s board of directors. “The company is leading the way by providing a field-proven solution that delivers strong results, improving social infrastructure and serving overlooked markets in unique, thoughtful, and powerful ways. These are precisely the values behind the future of mobility that Toyota is bringing to life, making Intuition Robotics a natural fit for Woven Capital.”

The funding round comes on the heels of a successful commercial launch with government agencies across the United States. Intuition Robotics has initiated programs to distribute ElliQ at no cost to end users with the New York State Office for the Aging, the Area Agency on Aging of Broward County, the Olympic Area Agency on Aging, and California’s Agency on Aging in Area 4. In addition, the company signed its first agreement with a Managed Care Organization focusing on Medicare beneficiaries. In the state of New York,  the product has shown unprecedented engagement levels with users averaging over 30 interactions with ElliQ per day. It has been proven to reduce loneliness for 95% of users. 

The latest advancements in Generative AI and the prevalence of transformers and Large Language Models (LLMs) have allowed Intuition Robotics to integrate rich and continuous conversational experiences into ElliQ. By leveraging these advancements, ElliQ has deepened its conversational abilities, allowing for an even deeper relationship to evolve between ElliQ and the user. The company has developed technology that chooses the areas where to integrate multiple LLMs seamlessly into the experiences such as sparking the creativity of the users by painting with ElliQ through the use of DALLE2, augmenting scripted conversations, and achieving deeper contextual understanding. This is done with guardrails and algorithmic control on the integrity of the experience.

"We’ve seen the direct impact that loneliness has had on our aging community, but we’ve also seen the positive results our AI and technology have on the older adult population. Beyond the groundbreaking results in reducing loneliness - ElliQ is also seeing an impact on health, wellness, and behavior change,” said Dor Skuler, CEO and Co-founder of Intuition Robotics. “The latest advancements in AI have advanced ElliQ’s conversational capabilities to become even more contextual, personalized, and goal driven. We’re proud to be at the forefront of harnessing this technology for the benefit of our users. We are excited to utilize this new funding to deploy more ElliQ devices out into the world, further increase its accessibility, expand partnerships, and gain a deeper understanding of the role ElliQ can play in the healthcare ecosystem. We are grateful for the support of Woven Capital and our additional investors as we continue our mission to empower older adults to live happier, healthier, and more independent lives at home,” 

"Since we first invested in Intuition Robotics in 2017, we’ve been inspired by the team's mission to empower older adults using AI. It’s exciting to see the progress they’ve made over the years – from ElliQ’s initial development and testing, to the commercial deployment and now a growing number of partnerships,” said Jim Adler, founder and general partner of Toyota Ventures. “We share the company’s vision of using technology to amplify the human experience and look forward to seeing how ElliQ will continue to enrich the lives of older adults.”