Ahmedabad based robotic startup Ishitva Robotic Systems (IRS) has raised a Pre-Series A round of over $1mn led by Inflection Point Ventures, one of India’s largest angel investment platforms. The funds raised will be utilised in growing sales and expanding the R&D team. 

Many waste management and plastic value chain players and veterans also participated, including Kamaljyot Investments Ltd (a subsidiary of Excel Industries Ltd), Gandhi Family from GRP Ltd., AVI Global Plast Private Limited, Anup Gulati, COO at Quality Maritime Provider Lda., Harinder Arya, President & Div CEO – Major Capex & Pressure Control at Joulon, Sanjay Kamlani, Serial Investor and Founder of Pangea3 and Mohan Ayyangar: Operations Lead – GDS EY India.

“Ishitva’s model is particularly innovative as they are leveraging cutting edge technology to sort out the waste which is already being generated. Sorting the waste is the first step to a meaningful recycling ecosystem. Ishitva’s business vision and our ESG goals are a seamless synergy which prompted us to invest in the company,” said Mitesh Shah, Co-founder, Inflection Point Ventures.

Ishitva uses AI, ML, IoT, Industry 4.0 to build efficient solutions which help in sorting complex waste. Effective sorting of waste is currently the weakest link in creating a circular value chain. Therefore, the company focuses on leveraging industry 4.0 tools to systematically sort out waste and assess the quality of recyclable waste. 

Jitesh Dadlani, Founder of Ishitva, said, “Indian waste management industry is a riddle, and our unlimited dream is to eliminate the manual sorting of waste which often involves humans to work in unhygienic conditions. Our vision is to install industry 4.0 solutions in 4000+ towns of the country picked up by the Swachh Bharat Mission, and we are thrilled to have IPV as a part of this journey.”

“We are excited that many of the waste industry stalwarts are joining early in our journey. With IPV, we now have access to a large pool of professionals and experts, which is immensely useful at this stage for us,” said Sandip Singh, CEO of Ishitva.

Ishitva currently offers a range of solutions, including SUKA (AI-powered air sorting), YUTA (AI-powered robotic sorting) and Netra AI Vision system, which help identify waste and smart bins. The AI-powered Netra identifies the waste, learns about its contents by capturing images, and then scans for recyclable material.