Keeping hospital corridors clean or moving goods across factory floors involves repetitive, physically demanding work. For facility management companies, finding people to carry out these tasks is becoming harder.

This workforce gap is the opportunity behind Peppermint Robotics. Founded in 2019 and incubated at SINE, IIT Bombay, the Pune-based startup builds autonomous robots that scrub floors and move materials across commercial and industrial facilities.

Now, it has raised ₹100 Cr (about $10.5 Mn) in a Pre-Series B round to expand manufacturing, develop new robots, and strengthen its US and European businesses.

Led by pi Ventures and Crane Venture Partners, with participation from Asiana Fund, the round comprised primary capital and secondary share transactions. Founder Runal Dahiwade told Inc42 that the bulk of the investment was primary capital. The startup previously raised ₹34 Cr in a Series A round in April 2025. 

Featured in Inc42’s June 2020 edition of ‘30 Startups To Watch’, Peppermint began with a floor-cleaning and sanitising robot. Its portfolio now spans scrubber-dryers, vacuuming and mopping robots, three material-handling models, and automated docking stations.

The startup says its cleanroom scrubber-dryer has passed qualification testing in an EU GMP Grade C cleanroom. Such controlled environments require strict limits on contamination, creating a specialised application beyond routine cleaning.

Dahiwade also claimed Peppermint is the world’s first cleanroom robotics company. 

Over the next 12-15 months, Peppermint plans smaller and larger cleaning and material-handling robots, alongside upgrades. Outdoor cleaning robots are planned by 2028. Its proprietary Peppermint OS powers navigation, while computer vision and LiDAR help machines map spaces and avoid obstacles.

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