Aethon, Inc., a provider of mobile robotics solutions for hospital supply chain logistics, has successfully raised $2 million out of a targeted funding of $3.5 million, according to a filing by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC (News - Alert)). Previously, the company had raised $6.63 million in April in a cash and debt investment, while it gathered an amount of $888,423 in debt financing in December 2009. Prior to that, Aethon had also risen a funding of $14 million in September 2008.

While the company had previously received investment by investors such as Quincy, Nexus Medical Partners and Radius Ventures, while in the current round it has risen the funding from Trident Capital based in Palo Alto (News - Alert), Calif. and Westport, Conn.; Encino and Irvine, Calif.-based Pacific Venture Group; Pittsburgh-based Draper Triangle Ventures; and Salix Ventures from Nashville, Tenn.

Henry Thorne, a robot entrepreneur, launched Aethon, Inc., in 2001 at Pittsburgh, and the company made its foray into the commercial market in 2005 with TUG robotic systems that offered automated supply and equipment logistics for hospitals.

The filing by SEC includes a number of executives at Aethon, including President and CEO Aldo Zini; CFO Robert Reilly and Peter Meekin, director at Trident Capital; Layton Crouch, director at Pacific Venture Group; Donald Jones, director at Draper Triangle Ventures; David Ward, director at Salix Ventures; and Ron Taylor, chairman and CEO at Asteres.

In November 2007, Aethon announced that 10 more VA hospitals had purchased TUG, its autonomous mobile robotic system. According to the deal, the VA Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network installed 21 TUGs in eight medical centers, which included Asheville, N.C.; Beckley, W.Va.; Durham, N.C.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Hampton, Va.; Richmond, Va.; Salem, Va; and Salisbury, N.C. Apart from it, the VA Boston Healthcare System's Roxbury Campus, and the VA Healthcare System of Ohio's Chalmers P. Wylie Veterans Clinic in Columbus also implemented three TUGs each.