Tangent Robotics Raises $4.5M in Pre-Seed Funding Led by Fly Ventures

Why the Funding Matters

Tangent Robotics will use the funding to expand its operations and continue developing its robotic manipulation technology.

The company is focused on building fine motor skills that can help robots handle complex, high-precision tasks in industrial environments.

Who founded Tangent Robotics?

Tangent Robotics was founded by Matei Ciocarlie, Ioannis Kymissis, and Pedro Piacenza.

The company is based in New York City and was spun out of Columbia University's Robotic Manipulation and Mobility Lab.

The founding team previously worked on robotic sensing, robot hand design, and motor learning at Columbia Engineering.

"Fine motor skills are hard to learn, and represent a layer that is currently missing in robotics but omnipresent in the real world," says Pedro Piacenza, Tangent's co-founder. "They unlock the ability to perform delicate, intricate manipulation.

"Grippers and suction cups are effective in less delicate applications (pick & pack, sorting, etc.) but incompatible with a lot of economic activity," says Matt Wichrowski, Partner at Fly Ventures. “The fine motor control needed for more complex manipulation is an incredibly difficult technical challenge, but one that the Tangent team has spent their entire career focused on.”

Market and Business Growth

Tangent Robotics' technology includes light-based touch sensors for robot fingers and robotic hands designed to track human fingertips.

The founding team introduced the DISCO robot finger at Columbia Engineering and designed hands for NASA's Assistive Free Flyer robots aboard the International Space Station.

The team also developed a robot hand capable of in-hand dexterity in the dark, which was named one of Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2023.