Founded in 2021, Flo Mobility is reimagining construction automation with vision-AI robots designed for seamless movement through complex sites. In conversation with CW, Manesh Jain, Founder & CEO, discusses the company鈥檚 origin, its LiDAR-free tech stack, and expansion plans in th...
Founded in 2021, Flo Mobility is reimagining construction automation with vision-AI robots designed for seamless movement through complex sites. In conversation with CW, Manesh Jain, Founder & CEO, discusses the company鈥檚 origin, its LiDAR-free tech stack, and expansion plans in the Middle East and US.What inspired the name Flo Mobility? Why 鈥楩lo鈥� and not 鈥楩low鈥�?When we started the company in 2021, our focus was on building autonomous navigation systems for robots. Since our work centred around robot movement, 鈥榤obility鈥� naturally became part of the name. We wanted to convey the idea of robots that don't just move but flow 鈥� integrated seamlessly into the workflow and environment. 鈥楩low鈥� felt like the right fit. However, the domain name flowmobility.com was unavailable while flomobility.com was. So, we dropped the 鈥榳鈥�, making 鈥楩lo鈥� distinctive and memorable. Over time, it became a brand identity that reflects our vision: fully autonomous, smooth and efficient mobility.What was the core motivation behind founding Flo Mobility?Before Flo, I had cofounded a startup that was eventually acquired by Jio- Embibe, a subsidiary of Reliance.. After leaving reliance in 2020, I spent time studying robotics domain and after talking to numerous founders building for different robotics use cases, it became clear to me that robotics would soon transform industries beyond factories and warehouses, into sectors like landscaping, agriculture, mining and, especially, construction. In 2021, while the world was actively exploring autonomous navigation, many of these real-world sectors remained largely untouched by automation. Despite structural progress, construction processes remained outdated. I saw a big opportunity to bring automation to this gap, and that led to Flo Mobility鈥檚 offerings in the construction robotics space.Can you break down the core technology powering your autonomous stack and how it adapts to complex Indian construction sites?Our technology comprises two major components: Robot hardware and Physical AI agents. On the hardware side, we're not building replacements for existing machines like JCBs or excavators. We're developing entirely new categories 鈥� robots that didn鈥檛 exist before. For example, a painting robot or a wall-finishing robot. These are niche but valuable interventions. The AI side is where the real magic happens. This is the robot's brain, responsible for understanding its surroundings, making sense of its environment, and taking decisions to execute tasks accurately. We鈥檝e taken a vision-first approach. Our stack uses cameras instead of LiDAR as the primary sensor input. Cameras are less expensive, consume less compute, and offer higher contextual understanding.For instance, LiDAR creates an HD point cloud map but lacks semantics; it can tell you there鈥檚 an object but not what it is. Cameras, on the other hand, can capture rich contextual data. For example, you can infer whether a cow is moving or grazing. This kind of nuance is critical on construction sites, where visual quality (like the finish of a wall) matters, not just navigation. While camera-based systems are cost-effective 鈥� roughly Rs 80,000-1 lakh versus Rs 2.5-3 lakh for LiDAR 鈥� they do come with a trade-off. Vision AI is still evolving and requires a lot of data and training to become reliable. That鈥檚 where we've invested significantly: collecting real-world data from construction sites and continuously improving our models.How have your product applications evolved across sectors like construction and logistics?The journey has been exciting. We started with remote-controlled systems, moved to semi-autonomous, and now have fully autonomous robots. Hardware also matured, from chain drives to gearboxes, better actuators for dumping, better sensors, & so on. Continuous field data helped us re-train models periodically and improve performance across AI, mechanics and control systems.What has been the impact of funding on your growth and expansion plans?We鈥檝e raised about Rs 7 crore so far from angel investors and VCs. A major milestone was securing investment from ArtPark, the robotics incubator under the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Their involvement validated our tech stack and deep-tech vision.Our other investors include JITO Angels, a network with strong roots in the construction and real-estate industry. For instance, the MD of Ratna Group (a Mumbai-based construction firm) is an investor. So is DevX a prop-tech investor and coworking space operator from Ahmedabad with real-estate interests. These investors not only brought in capital but also helped us with customer access and product feedback. We鈥檙e now actively scaling in India and are launching our first international deployment in the Middle East next month. The US is another key market we鈥檙e targeting.What are the biggest technical or operational challenges you鈥檝e faced on Indian sites and how do you overcome them?Construction sites 鈥� especially in India 鈥� are dynamic and unstructured. This is true globally, too, but Indian sites are particularly chaotic . One day a path is clear, the next day it鈥檚 blocked by materials or debris. This ever-changing environment makes it hard to standardise workflows or navigation paths. We tackled this by building adaptive AI that learns from real-world construction data, enabling robots to interpret and respond to dynamic environments in real time.Where have you deployed your robots so far 鈥� residential, infra or other segments?Our early deployments were in high-rise residential projects. Since then, we鈥檝e expanded into data centres, hospitals, airports (including the one near Visakhapatnam), pre-cast plants, malls and office spaces. While we haven鈥檛 yet done metros or bridges, the underlying tech, especially for autonomous material movement, is widely applicable. Any project or workflow using a manual wheelbarrow or need repeated material handling or using hoists, there's a case for improving productivity of material movement process. Looking ahead, what trends do you foresee in autonomous mobility and how will Flo Mobility contribute to this future?Two major trends are shaping up. First, electrification. Machines like loaders and excavators are steadily shifting from IC engines to electric drives. Second, driverless operations. . Once these machines are electric, it becomes feasible to also make them autonomous.We see a future where repetitive, low-value tasks, like moving bricks or painting walls, are handled by robots. Human workers can then be upskilled for planning or quality assurance roles. Across every stage 鈥� land prep, concrete pouring, wall-finishing 鈥� automation will rise.At Flo, we aim to be at the forefront of this transformation, building robots that can deliver high-quality outcomes faster, more safely, and at a lower cost.Quote 鈥淲e aim to build robots that can deliver high-quality outcomes faster, more safely, and at a lower cost.鈥�
