Ishitva, a robotics firm based in Ahmedabad, has raised $1 million in pre-series funding. Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) led a fundraising round. Ishitva is a manufacturer of dry waste sorting equipment that uses AI, machine learning, and Internet of Things (IoT) to solve the problem of sorting complex garbage. The monies raised will be utilised to increase the sales force and the R&D department.

Kamaljyot Investments (a subsidiary of Excel Industries Ltd), Gandhi Family from GRP, AVI Global Plast Private Limited, Anup Gulati COO at Quality Maritime Provider, Harinder Arya president & div CEO - Major Capex & Pressure Control at Joulon, Sanjay Kamlani, serial investor and founder of Pangea3, and Mohan Ayyangar, operations lead – GDS EY India were among the many waste management and plastic value chain players and veterans who participated in the round.

“We will continue to invest in R&D along with deploying solutions across towns and cities in India. These AI enabled solutions will lead to increased recycling, enhanced data capture for better decision making for SBM and all stakeholders including recyclers and government agencies. Our aim is to enable high scale recycling of plastic, paper, glass, metal etc while helping the people working in the sector with tech, safety and better working conditions,” said Jitesh Dadlani, founder, Ishitva.

Ishitva presently offers SUKA (AI-powered air sorting), YUTA (AI-powered robotic sorting), and the Netra AI vision system, which aids in the identification of garbage and smart bins. Netra recognises waste, uses photos to learn about its composition, and then scans for recyclable materials.

Mitesh Shah, co-founder, Inflection Point Ventures, said, “The current generation is focusing on recycling and robotics. Ishitva are using advanced tech to sort out the generated waste and making the recycling ecosystem more efficient and productive. They envision making our planet a better place to live in by leveraging AI, ML and IoT, and we stand behind this vision confidently to help them grow further.”