Humanoid robotics company Andromeda has raised AU$23 million in Series A funding, fuelling its bold vision to combat loneliness with Abi – the world’s most emotionally intelligent humanoid companion robot.
Led by US-based Forerunner Ventures, the round is the largest Series A led by a woman in Australia this year. It includes Rethink Impact, Artesian, Main Sequence, Visible Ventures and Trampoline along with previous investors Purpose Ventures – which led Andromeda’s Seed funding round last year – and Startmate.
Also distinctive for being majority women-led, the round brings together a powerful cohort of female investors including Forerunner’s Eurie Kim (ŌURA Chairperson), Main Sequence’s Alezeia Brown, Rethink Impact’s Heidi Patel and Artesian’s Ananya Sinha – leaders known for backing high-impact women-led startups with strong early portfolio success
Andromeda CEO Grace Brown says the funding will accelerate the company’s expansion into the US while scaling operations and teams at home in Australia.
“This funding will see us expand into the US focusing on aged care initially, and in Australia it means we can fast track our waitlist and bring the magic of Abi’s companionship to more customers and partners in the aged care sector and other industries,” Brown said.
“We’re hiring across every area of our business in Australia from engineering to customer success while in the US, we’re particularly looking for creative and animation robotics specialists.”
The announcement comes alongside the launch of the next-generation Abi (Genesis Abi) – the same trusted companion robot, now rebuilt with major upgrades that make her the first humanoid robot ready to support Australia’s workforce. The first deployment of Genesis Abi will take place this month at a mecwacare aged care home.
“Genesis Abi is fully autonomous,” Brown said. “Care teams can direct Abi and set her daily schedule, and she’ll navigate the home independently – supporting staff to lead group activities, spending one-on-one time with residents, conversing in their preferred language, listening to their stories, and bringing that spark of human connection we all crave.”
“We’re grateful to all our aged care partners who’ve co-developed Abi with us to support care teams in providing more companionship to residents, filling a void that simply can’t be solved by more staff alone.”
With a core focus on empathy and emotional intelligence, Andromeda’s approach to robotics has been unique since Brown, a mechatronics engineer, was inspired to create a companion for herself during Melbourne’s prolonged Covid-19 lockdowns.
Together with co-founder Yan Chen, Brown has led Andromeda swiftly through R&D to commercialisation and now expansion, keeping the goal of solving the loneliness epidemic with a different kind of technology front and centre.
“We believe the next mass technological adoption will be the home companion robot. With Abi, we’re leading that shift – starting in aged care where the need for meaningful connection is greatest,” Brown said.
“We’re at the frontier of emotion, character AI and social systems design, building a new kind of relationship that feels warm, helpful and profoundly human because the world needs more of that,” Brown said.
