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TacnIQ.ai

TacnIQ.ai

"AI can see. It can speak. It still can't feel."

Software/Algorithm
Component Supplier

Singapore physical-AI startup building a tactile foundation model, the TAC-02 64-taxel robotic finger kit and Backy wearable; raised $1.5M pre-seed in 2026.

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Company Overview

TacnIQ.ai is a physical-AI company developing tactile sensing hardware and a foundation model for touch, intended to let robots and machines interpret contact, slip and texture in real time. It lists offices in Singapore, at the Innovation 4.0 building on Research Link, and in Los Altos, California, and is described by Singapore media as Singapore-based. Aashish Mehta is co-founder and chief executive; the other co-founders, serving as technology advisers, are Benjamin Tee and Harold Soh, director of the NUS AI Lab. The company cites 15 years of touch research behind its work.

Its first commercial product is Backy, a wearable tactile data node used by paying customers in logistics, construction, e-commerce, hospitality and healthcare, where it also supports workplace safety and ergonomics monitoring. Data from Backy and from controlled experiments feeds the company's tactile dataset, which it put at more than 5,000 hours of interactions in September 2026. For robot builders it offers the TAC-02 Robotic Finger Dev Kit, a fingertip sensor less than 10 mm thick with a 64-taxel array sampled at 1 kHz and slip detection in under 2 ms, supplied with a USB-C cable and the TAC-SDK with pre-trained physics models; the kit is offered for pre-order. A texture-recognition application for TAC-02, which classifies fabric roughness and natural versus synthetic fibre by touch alone, is in development and is designed to run on TacnIQ reference hardware or third-party tactile sensors.

The company claims its foundation model needs 95 percent less labelled data and converges 20 times faster than conventional approaches, and offers OEM pilots on a 12-week timeline. Industries listed on its site are logistics, e-commerce, construction, hospitality, healthcare and research.

In September 2026 TacnIQ.ai raised 1.5 million US dollars as part of a 3 million US dollar pre-seed round led by In Group Holdings, a Singapore investment firm, to develop its tactile models, expand engineering and scale commercial deployments. It is working with Synaptics to widen the range of physical signals its models can process and move tactile applications toward commercial readiness, and is developing further sensor nodes to capture what it calls physics primitives.

Capabilities & Activities

Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:

Applications & Industries

Product Categories

Products & Solutions

TAC-02 Robotic Finger Dev Kit

Slim tactile fingertip sensor kit for robots with slip detection and an SDK of pre-trained physics models.

TAC-02 Texture Recognition

Touch-only classification of fabric roughness and fibre type, without vision.

Backy

Wearable tactile data node that streams touch and posture data from workers in the field.

Tactile AI foundation model

Foundation model for touch that lets robots and machines interpret tactile signals.

Partnership & Notable clients

Associating Events

Listed in RobotToday Supplier Discovery. Verified Profile

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Contact TacnIQ.ai

WEBSITE

https://www.tacniq.ai

EMAIL

[email protected]

HEADQUARTERS

3 Research Link
Unit 05-02
Singapore , Singapore  117602

Singapore

Company Facts

Founded

-

Primary Role

Software/Algorithm

Company Size

-

Primary Region

Asia-Pacific

Annual Sales

-

Funding Stage

Early-Stage VC

Funding Total

$ 1,500,000

Keywords

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