The Grishin Robotics investment company, established by Mail.ru Group CEO Dmitry Grishin, announced yesterday that it has invested $500,000 in Swivl, a robotic video platform for iOS devices. This funding round brings the total capital attracted by Swivl to $1.625 million.
California-based Swivl produces robotic docks compatible with the iPhone and iPad that can play the role of a “personal cameraman.” The user need only wear a small wireless sensor that acts as a microphone to be followed by the gadget’s camera.
Swivl claims its product is already being used by more than 1,000 schools and 250 universities as well as by business trainers, online lecturers and others.
The investment by Grishin Robotics will allow Swivl to finish the development of a new version of the dock, which will be compatible not only with iOS devices but with those running Android as well. The integration of cloud video services is also planned.
Swivl was launched in 2010 and received its first two seed funding rounds, totaling $950,000, in 2011. Later on the company ran a crowdfunding campaign on the IndieGogo platform that brought in $25,000; a second round of crowdfunding in 2013, this time on KickStarter, generated an additional $150,000.
To date Swivl has sold more than 10,000 of its robotic docks for $149 to $199 per unit.
The Grishin Robotics fund was launched in 2012 by Dmitry Grishin, CEO of Mail.ru Group, an LSE-listed Russian Internet group. It is based in New York City and had $25 million under management at its inception. Since then the fund has pumped $250,000 into Double Robotics, another $250,000 into RobotAppStore and an undisclosed amount into hardware business incubator Bolt.
