Tombot, a Los Angeles-area company that makes a robotic dog for people who cannot keep a real one, has closed a $7m Series A3 financing round to move its flagship product from development into manufacturing.
The company said on June 24 that the round drew investment from Caduceus Capital Partners, Wavemaker 360, the Lutheran Foundation for Long Term Living, and Florida Community Health Network, a mix of healthcare and aging-services backers rather than the usual consumer-tech names.
The money is meant to carry Tombot through to a planned launch in the autumn. The company says the financing will let it scale manufacturing, expand operations, and accelerate commercialisation ahead of a Fall 2026 customer launch, its first shipments to paying buyers.
It also says it has already taken more than 23,000 pre-orders and waitlist sign-ups for the product, a number it offers as evidence of demand before a single unit has shipped.
The 💜 of EU tech
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
That product is a robotic Labrador puppy named Jennie, designed to behave like an eight-to-ten-week-old dog. According to the company, Jennie is fully autonomous and built to mimic the movements and responses of a real puppy, the idea being to deliver the companionship and the claimed health benefits of a live animal without the feeding, walking, or vet bills.
Tombot pitches it at the more than 300 million people worldwide living with dementia or mild cognitive impairment, and at people coping with anxiety, loneliness, autism, and PTSD.
Tombot positions Jennie squarely inside the conversation about an ageing population, caregiver shortages, and the social isolation that comes with both, the same set of pressures that a growing field of dementia-care technology has been trying to address.
The company describes its robotic companions as a way to provide comfort and emotional connection for older adults who can benefit from a pet but are unable to care for one.
“This financing represents an important milestone as we transition from product development to commercial scale,” said founder and chief executive Tom Stevens, who has said the idea grew out of his own mother’s experience.
He framed the investors as backers who recognise “both the significant market opportunity and the positive social impact of companion robotics,” and said the funding would let the company meet demand, execute its launch, and build out a broader product line.
The investors echoed the social-impact pitch. Dr Mark Gusek, president and chief executive of the Lutheran Foundation, said the potential of the technology “became immediately apparent” within minutes of seeing the robot, and described Jennie as a product that could “transform the daily lives” of people affected by cognitive challenges who cannot safely keep a live pet.
Ryan McKindles, managing partner at Caduceus Capital Partners, pointed to “the convergence of an aging population, caregiver shortages, and increasing loneliness” as the reason for the bet. Caduceus led Tombot’s Series A last year and returned for this round.
Tombot has been building toward this moment for a while. Jennie first appeared in the marketplace in early 2024, and the company says it has since gathered interest from consumers, healthcare providers, senior-living operators, and caregiving organisations.
The funding leaves it at the convergence of robotics, healthcare, and consumer technology, a position plenty of companies have claimed and fewer have turned into a shipping product.
It is also a familiar number in robotics right now, the same size as the seed round another consumer robotics startup raised earlier this year to take a single physical task off human hands.
Whether Jennie lands is now a question of execution rather than concept. Tombot has the orders, the backers, and a launch date. What it does not yet have, by its own account, is a track record of putting the dog in customers’ hands.
The autumn will show whether a waitlist converts into a business, which is the test every pre-launch hardware company eventually has to sit.
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.