Tunisian robotics startup Enova Robotics has raised a US$1.6 million funding round to create a French branch and expand its development capacities.
Founded in 2014, Enova Robotics specialises in the design and manufacture of mobile robots, and in 2015 released the world’s first security robot for civilian use, named “Pearl Guard”.
The robot is a patrolling “security guard” that can detect intruders and send alerts. The current version allows human security officers to act remotely by operating a blinding flash to slow down the intrusion and buy time for agents to arrive on the site. Last year, meanwhile, it launched telepresence robot eTouchbot.
Enova has now secured US$1.6 million in funding from Tunis-based investment firm Capsa Capital, which it will use to open a French branch for overseas sales and develop further robots in the security field.
Dr Anis Sahbani, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Enova, said the startup had raised funding before but that this latest raise was a landmark amount for a Tunisian tech company. Enova is now focused on expansion.
“Our market today is mainly in Europe and Saudi Arabia. In the short term, we want to balance the European and the Middle East markets while maintaining exponential growth. In the medium term, we are preparing for expansion to the US market,” Sahbani said.
