After $1.2M in pre-orders, Double Robotics raises $250K from Grishin Robotics

Grishin Robotics, an investment firm that specializes in (you guessed it) robotics, has just announced a $250,000 investment in Y Combinator grad Double Robotics.

While the full terms of the deal were not disclosed, we do know that Double Robotics has already sold 600 of its $2,000/unit telepresence robots for a grand total of $1.2 million in pre-orders. According to the release, the newly raised cash will be spent “primarily on scaling manufacturing, as well as hiring and further product development.” In other words, these funds will allow the young startup to handle all the attention it has received as of late.

Double Robotics co-founder and CEO David Cann, revealed that Grishin Robotics is his company’s largest investor to date:

We are thrilled to have Grishin Robotics and Dmitry Grishin, in particular, as our largest investor to date. We read about the new investment firm and Dmitry’s experience in the field of robotics in June 2012 when the fund was announced. The timing was perfect, as we were just beginning the Y Combinator program with our prototype robot. After our public launch in August, we met with Grishin Robotics and were immediately impressed with their mission and deep knowledge of the robotics industry’s past mistakes and potential future.

Double Robotics debuted its highly interesting, yet somewhat goofy vision of the future of telepresence in August, where given an iPad and a Double (the name of the company’s robot), you don’t really have to leave your home again. Check out the video below and you’ll see what we mean:

Hardware startups are only just starting to truly heat up again, and robotics will certainly plan an important role in that space as they advance into more seamless tools that improve our lives. If you’ve got $2,000 to space, order your Double here.