Diligent Robotics raises $10 million for nurse assistant robot Moxi

Diligent Robotics today announced the close of a $10 million round to expand its fleet of nurse assistant robots for hospitals. The round was led by DNX Ventures, with participation from True Ventures, Ubiquity Ventures, Next Coast Ventures, Grit Ventures, E14 Fund, and Promus Ventures. Moxi is designed to reduce nurse workloads by handling tasks like collecting supplies, gathering soiled linens, and delivering fresh ones, and it's coming to market during the COVID-19 crisis, when nurses are in short supply. In addition to tackling mundane aspects of the job, the robot can also help reduce health care professionals' exposure to disease. Moxi was created by Diligent Robotics at University of Texas, Austin by CEO Dr. Andrea Thomaz, a roboticist and professor who previously ran the Georgia Tech Socially Intelligent Machines Lab. "It's a really good time to be working on this problem," Thomaz told VentureBeat in a phone interview.