Diligent Robotics, an Austin-based robotic automation company in healthcare has raised $25 million in financing. The round was led by Canaan, with participation from True Ventures, DNX Ventures, Next Coast Ventures among the return investors and Northwestern Medicine Innovation joined the round as a new strategic investor. This round follows the $30 million Series B round raised back in 2022.
The robotic automation company will use the funds to accelerate system-wide expansions of its Moxi robot across hospitals nationwide, enhance product development and triple its market reach.
Andrea Thomaz, Ph.D., Diligent Robotics’ co-founder and CEO said, “We approach our work with deep empathy for the people who care for patients every day, and it has been incredible to witness the difference Moxi makes in supporting nursing, pharmacy, lab and entire clinical care teams. This funding round will enable us to scale fleets and accelerate product development while remaining true to our vision of creating robots that function as core team members and elevate the standards of healthcare through robotics.”
“As an organisation driven by our Patients First mission, we continue to explore ways innovation and technology can support our clinicians and staff to enhance their ability to care for our patients,” said Doug King, senior vice president and chief information officer at Northwestern Medicine. “Led by our team at the Northwestern Medicine Mansueto Innovation Institute, we deployed Moxi in targeted areas throughout Northwestern Memorial Hospital to support clinical staff by automating and scheduling pickups of non-tubable lab specimens and medications. Introducing this technology had a positive impact on staff and workflow. We are looking forward to deploying Moxi throughout our health system in the near future.”
Appoints new board of directors
In addition to the investment, Rich Boyle from Canaan will join the board of directors of Diligent Robotics.
“With healthcare staffing needs continuing to exceed the labor available, hospitals must make the best use of their constrained workforces to meet demand. That means finding new efficiencies in previously unaddressable areas and offering staff members a return to their most fulfilling work,” said Rich Boyle, general partner at Canaan. “Moxi has already been eagerly adopted by many of the nation’s top healthcare systems, and the positive impact on productivity, patient outcomes, and team morale is evident. Both are reasons we believe Diligent Robotics has a big future and are thrilled to be leading this newest round of financing.”
Moxi: A socially-intelligent robot
Founded by Dr. Andrea Thomaz and Dr. Vivian Chu, Diligent Robotics is the creator of the Moxi robot. It is a socially-intelligent robot teammate that works across health systems to improve operational efficiency of hospital care teams so they have more time for patient care and can practice at the top of their license. It assists clinical staff with routine, not-patient-facing tasks including fetching and delivering supplies, medications, or lab samples.
Diligent Robotics also surpassed many impressive autonomy metrics. including the completion of more than 400,000 total deliveries giving more than 200,000 hours back to staff to instead spend with patients.
Currently, Moxi is adopted by and deployed in over 22 health systems that represent more than 200 hospitals nationwide, including NorthShore – Edward-Elmhurst Health, MultiCare Health System, The University of Texas affiliated network of health systems, Northwestern Medicine and many others, the company expects to triple its market footprint over the next 24 months, including systemwide expansion within the majority of the health systems.
