Grishin Robotics, a Russian VC group dedicated to the commercialization of robotics, has dropped an unnamed sum into Bolt, a hardware incubator in Boston. Grishin’s investment is part of a $3.5 million financing package closed this week.
“Since our launch in June last year and past two investments, we realised that there is plenty of smart entrepreneurs with good ideas, but they lack guidance and mentorship, and it’s too early for them to take VC money. Bolt is an ideal place for them to go,” said Dmitry Grishin, founder of Grishin Robotics.
“We believe that hardware startups, and consumer robotics and connected devices specifically, should have supporting ecosystem around them in order to succeed, and it’s just being built now.”
Bolt is a “product-focused” accelerator that allows for hardware startups to mature in a solid engineering environment. The six-month program puts startups through the ringer while supplying them with solid mentors as well as a complete machine shop and electronics lab.
Grishin was unable to describe its actual investment but told us it was significant. “Strategic partners (GR, Logitech, Autodesk) combined have provided the biggest share of funding, and size of this investment is much bigger than our previous two deals,” he said.
What’s next for Grishin? They’re still hunting for a few good hardware startups. “We can see a lot robotics companies emerging on a connected devices market, around ‘internet-of-things’ idea, and now talking with plenty of companies in this area,” said Grishin.