Contoro Robotics, which seeks to augment robot intelligence with AI and teleoperation, brought in $4.7 million in Seed funding. This round follows a pre-seed round from 2022 that totaled $1.3 million, and brings the company’s total funding to date to $6 million. 

Contoro’s technology aims to combine AI with human expertise by allowing AI to control robots in most situations but having humans on standby to intervene when necessary. This approach allows Contoro’s technology to be used in a wide range of applications, anywhere from performing simple, easy-to-automate tasks to complex tasks that require human judgment. 

“We are excited to announce this investment which will allow us to accelerate the deployment of our augmented intelligence technology,” Youngmok Yun, CEO and founder of Contoro Robotics, said. “We’re making headway in the logistics domains and we’re confident diverse industries can benefit from our innovative solutions.”

SV Investment led the funding round, which also included participation from Kakao Ventures, Bass Investment, Future Play, and UT Austin Seed Fund. Contoro’s pre-seed round was led by Village Global, which is backed by big industry names like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg. 

“We believe that Contoro Robotics’ technologies including exoskeleton, haptics, artificial intelligence, [and] teleoperation have the potential to effectively optimize algorithm structures that robot human-like thinks and acts,” Il-Yong Choi, Ph.D., Investor at SV Investment, said. “It means that Contoro Robotics’ approach can be applied to a lot of ordinary tasks and then accelerate that robot itself can be much more accessible and affordable in our daily lives.”

Contoro’s current focus is on solving challenges in oversea container unloading for warehouses business. It has a pilot program scheduled to launch in Q3 of 2023. The company was founded in 2022 and is based in Austin, TX.