Robotics startup Hivebotics raises US$6 million Series A round led by Vertex Ventures
Its robot has an articulated arm, and can clean a restroom including toilets, urinals, sinks and floors
[SINGAPORE] Singapore-based robotics startup Hivebotics has raised a US$6 million Series A funding round on Friday (Sep 4).
The round was led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, with Fareast Land Development and bathroom manufacturer Rigel participating.
Hivebotics’ robot Abluo, has an articulated arm and can clean a commercial restroom including toilets, urinals, sinks and floors. Existing commercial cleaning robots only cover the floor, said the startup.
Abluo has logged about 10,000 operating hours over 12 months across 20 sites in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. These sites include hospitals, airport terminals and shopping malls.
The robot provides consistent restroom cleaning, solving the staffing and consistency issues of cleaning toilets. Abluo can clean restrooms to the same standard each cycle, replacing 30 minutes of manual work with a five-minute human inspection.
It cleans without contact, using a combination of high pressure steam, targeted chemical jet, vacuum extraction and blow-drying to avoid cross contamination risks. The arm can reach under rims and around fixtures.
Artificial intelligence generates the cleaning route in real time, with cameras identifying each fixture. Each job is scored by a before and after check, auditing the cleaning outcomes.
Rishab Patwari, co-founder and CEO of Hivebotics, said: “Within three years, teams of robots will do most of the repetitive, labour-intensive work of running a facility. We started with restrooms because they are the hardest: wet, cramped and full of moving parts.”
The startup is looking to tap a growing soft facilities management market which includes cleaning, security, catering and related services. The market is projected to increase from US$770 billion in 2024 to US$1.2 trillion in 2033, according to Grave View Research.
Restroom cleaning is the most labour-intensive part of the sector, and hardest to staff, with Kimberly-Clark reporting janitorial turnover of 200 to 400 per cent annually.
“Restroom cleaning is one of the few labour markets where demand is non-discretionary and supply keeps tightening,” said Chan Yip Pang, executive director, investment at Vertex Ventures South-east Asia & India.
