Catalia Health has managed to secure $1.25 million from Khosla Ventures and other investors to bring robots to healthcare facilities and eventually patients’ homes.

Founded by Cory Kidd, the company makes a robot called “Mabu” that aids in chronic disease management such as diabetes, arthritis, cancer and heart disease. Those using the robot will benefit from a friendly “face” that provides them with information and support as they cope with their condition on a daily basis.

Catalia will have the first robots on the market by the end of the year and is currently in discussions with several early potential customers.

“It’s about augmenting doctors and helping them manage a large group of patients much more effectively,” Kidd says.

Right now, the company has an alpha prototype in its offices and will use the fresh capital to scale up the business.

“Mabu” is designed to aid in chronic disease management such as diabetes, arthritis, cancer and heart disease.Before Catalia Health, Kidd worked at MIT’s Media Lab in the Robotic Life Group, headed by Cynthia Breazeal. Over four-and-a-half years, he developed a series of robots to serve as weight loss coaches for overweight patients.

Those early robots became the basis for Intuitive Automata, a Hong Kong-based company which Kidd founded with Bill McCord and Erica Young in 2008. That firm’s initial robot, Autom, and its targeted application for weight loss were both too early and too pricey to sustain the company’s operations.

Today, the landscape is different with U.S. government initiatives looking to use modern technologies to fight the ever-growing healthcare costs. In today’s market, startups like Catalia have a much better outlook, promising to reduce costs, improve operations and deliver better outcomes.

[Via: TechCrunch]