Andromeda Robotics just raised $23 million on a $100 million valuation, and its companion robot Abi is now operating full-time across all of mecwacare's Victorian homes, supporting over 1,500 residents.
That's the largest deployment of its kind in Australian aged care. It's also happening faster than the regulatory framework meant to govern it. For operators here and in Australia weighing their own technology investment, that gap is the story, not the robot.
The commercial logic driving this is straightforward. CEDA projects Australia faces a shortfall of at least 110,000 direct aged care workers by 2030. New Zealand has its own version of the same pressure, with almost 20 percent of the population projected to be 65 or older by 2028. Andromeda's pitch, and the reason investors backed it at that valuation, is that a robot handling companionship and check-ins frees rostered staff for higher-acuity care. Ageing Australia's chief executive put it plainly: if carers are busy with medication or showering, nothing else fills the social gap. Genesis Abi, the next-generation model launched alongside the funding round, is built specifically to scale that argument.
That's the case for adoption. It isn't the whole picture. Australia's eSafety Commissioner has flagged real concerns about companion AI used in a caring capacity over time, specifically the risk of social engineering, over-reliance, and harmful content reaching vulnerable users. Michelle Lim, chair of Ending Loneliness Together, has been more direct: these systems are built by engineers, not clinicians, and nobody outside the company knows what's behind the algorithm or how it would flag a resident in genuine distress. Canberra's Aged Care and Digital Strategy has been running since 2024 and is still assessing safety controls. The technology is already in the corridor. The framework is still in committee.
That timing gap is exactly where operators need to be doing their own work, not waiting for government to close it. Contracts with vendors like Andromeda should specify data governance, clinical escalation pathways, and what happens when a resident becomes reliant on the robot rather than human contact. None of that is optional just because regulation hasn't caught up.
New Zealand sits a step behind Australia on adoption, still mostly at the trial stage, Selwyn Village's work with Paro seals being the best-known local example. That's not a weakness. It's a window. Providers here can watch what mecwacare's rollout actually delivers on resident outcomes and staff workload before committing capital, and build governance requirements into procurement from day one rather than retrofitting them later.
The next six to twelve months will see funding and deployment keep outrunning regulation, in both markets. The providers who treat that as licence to move fast will be first to market. The ones who build clinical oversight and data safeguards into the contract now, ahead of any mandate to do so, will be the ones still trusted with residents' wellbeing when the regulatory framework finally arrives and starts asking hard questions.
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