Russian company Wicron has attracted 5 million rubles (approximately $80,000 at the current exchange rate) of investment from Ashmanov & Partners, a leading Russian web and SEO agency. The transaction took place in December 2014, but was announced only last month.
This funding came in addition to a grant for the same amount offered by Skolkovo, the international tech hub under completion on the outskirts of Moscow.
The funds will be used for the development of a telepresence robot called Webot. The machine allows a person to control the robot through the Internet, watch what is happening and talk to people remotely, see the world and move at the speed of a person walking. The robots may be used for remote visits to exhibitions, the remote presence of employees in the workplace, and the education of children with disabilities.
The robot has already passed the prototype stage, the first series of production and test sales. The machine costs about 300,000 rubles. The company has already sold the first series of 10 products. One robot, for example, was bought in the USA to carry out promotional activities. Another three robots ended up in the Skoltech institute (Skolkovo) for research.
The founders of the project, Dmitry Suvorov and Roman Zhukov, are graduates from the Department of Robotics at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. The project had already attracted an investment of 2 million rubles from Igor Ashmanov in 2013.