Intuition Robotics

Overview

Intuition Robotics is a startup that does machine learning and robotics focused on interacting with humans and their emotions. They are developing what they call cognitive computing to emotionally connect people and devices.  

Their first product, ElliQ, is a social companion robot for the elderly that also makes use of an included tablet to help communicate with its owner.  There have been over a decade of studies showing loneliness has extremely negative influences on health and leads to premature death in the elderly.  The ElliQ simplifies the elderly's interaction with technology as well as proactively engages with them, acting as a companion.

The team is based in Tel Aviv, Israel with 23 employees.

Why I like Them

I like that they are serving the needs of the growing elderly demographic.  I have long thought that this is a drastically underserved market with low competition and a large customer base whose needs are being unmet.  As the world's demographics grow older, there is a ton of opportunity to automate all aspects of care.

Intuition Robotics is in their earliest stages as a company and have yet to ship even their beta product or find product/market fit.  If the ElliQ itself doesn't work out, the software, patents, data, and learnings the team has developed around natural, emotive robotic communications will be invaluable as every digital device becomes smarter in the coming years.

However, they are headed in the right direction with a lot of work to be done in making humans interaction with our devices natural and intuitive.  Hardware startups statistically have even steeper odds than most startups, but I look forward to following Intuition Robotics progress in the coming years.

Disclosure:  I have spoken to members of the executive team.

INTUITION ROBOTICS FIRST PRODUCT, THE ELLIQ