LAHORE: LG Electronics recent investment in US-based Bossa Nova Robotics marks the first overseas investment in a robotics partner by LG following a number of deals with Korean startups over the past year. In total, LG has committed over USD 90 million to robotics startups in the first 12 months of its investment initiative.

Bossa Nova Robotics is the leading provider of real-time, on-shelf product data for the global retail industry which helps run large-scale retail stores efficiently by automating collection and analysis of on-shelf inventory data. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, has been testing Bossa Nova’s shelf-scanning robots in a number of stores since last year.

Acryl Inc, founded by a team of academics from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), is a 7-year-old cognitive computing company providing the integrated artificial intelligence (AI) platform called “Jonathan” which can recognize human emotions and meanings from text, speech and image based on big data and deep learning to realize real-life AI.—PR