Planys Technologies, a Chennai-based submersible robotic inspection startup has announced that it has raised Rs. 6.78 crore in its Series A funding round. However, the company has not yet closed the round as it aims to raise about Rs. 14 crore in this round.
This investment was led by Kris Gopalakrishnan, along with the participation of Pratithi Investment Trust, MEMG Family Office and some HNIs including S Gopal, former director of Chemplast Sanmar.
The company was started in the year 2015 by Tanuj Jhunjhunwala, Vineet Upadhyay, and Rakesh Sirikonda. Incubated at IIT Madras, the startup provides submersible robotic inspection and survey solutions using Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs).
It integrates advanced marine robotics with the next-generation inspection techniques (NDT) to provide a reliable and safe inspection solution. The company’s technology spans the domains of marine robotics, advanced Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) and post-inspection analysis.
When started, the company used to provide robotic solutions for the safe inspection of ports and ships. However, later on, the company also jumped into solving various pain points of oil and gas industry linked to underwater pipeline inspection purposes.
The company currently provides robotic inspection services at offshore locations (ports, offshore platform, civil structures etc) and is looking at providing services for onshore (storage tanks, pipelines) sites and ship hulls. The startup counts Chennai Port Trust, Visakhapatnam Port Trust and L&T Kattupalli International Container Terminal among its customers.
According to a recent MarketsandMarkets report, the global smart robotics market is valued at $4.94 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach $14.29 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 23.7 percent between 2018 and 2023.