WATER Robotics Raises $2.5 Mn To Build India’s First Robotic Bed

AI startup WATER Robotics has successfully raised $2.5 Mn in a recent funding round led by Endiya Partners, with contributions from notable figures such as India's national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand, Darwinbox cofounder Rohit Chennamaneni, and Swiggy cofounder Nandan Reddy. The majority of this capital will be allocated towards strengthening the company's research and development capabilities, while a portion will be used for data collection. Founder and CEO Teja Vinukollu revealed these details to Inc42.

Established in 2024 by Vinukollu and Haneesh Mourya Desu, WATER Robotics is a biophysical intelligence company that creates adaptive intelligent surfaces, engineered as a closed-loop system. Their key product, CAMA, is a robotic bed that utilizes 10,752 pressure sensors and 42 actuators to detect an individual's body and adjust the surface accordingly in real time.

This innovative bed is powered by a foundational model named VORTEX, which enables the system to sense, comprehend, and respond to the human body in real time. Based in Hyderabad, the startup aims to develop a "Physical OS" for furniture and other surfaces capable of sensing, understanding, and responding to humans.

This development comes at a time when there is increased interest in advancing physical AI in India. Companies across various sectors are exploring new levels of autonomy through physical AI applications, ranging from warehouses and manufacturing units to homes and roads. The surge in the adoption of robotics technologies by enterprises and consumers has attracted significant attention from Indian startup investors, who are keen on investing in startups operating in the physical AI space.

Recent examples include SwitchOn's $8 Mn (about ₹ 77 Cr) pre-Series B funding round in July and Mowito's $3 Mn pre-seed funding round to develop AI models that train industrial robots by observing human operators.

The India robotics market is expected to reach a value of over $7 Bn by 2034, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 15.7% from around $2 Bn in 2025. This growth is supported by various government initiatives aimed at promoting indigenous manufacturing and digital transformation.