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Anki is closing the doors on its toy robot business
Anki, the startup responsible for adorable robotics, is closing its doors and will terminate nearly 200 employees Wednesday. CEO Boris Sofman broke the news to staff today, Recode reports. In a statement provided to Engadget, the company said, "A significant financial deal at a late stage fell through with a strategic investor and we were not able to reach an agreement."
The news comes as a surprise, given that things seemed to be going well for Anki. Since its launch in 2010, the startup has raised more than $200 million in venture capital. Its main products Cozmo and Vector seemed to be successes. Vector launched last fall after a $2 million Kickstarter campaign, and most recently, it received Alexa integration. And Cozmo has been credited with teaching kids to code. The only shadow of a doubt seemed to be that the devices appeared more like toys than the advanced, AI-based robots that they were. Still, Microsoft, Amazon and Comcast had reportedly expressed interest in acquiring the company.
Learn to code job-killing robots.
Also at Recode.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by rob_on_earth on Tuesday April 30 2019, @08:49AM (1 child)
I thought this was their biggest money maker https://www.google.com/search?q=anki+overdrive [google.com]
My kids loved it and went through a whole year where everything revolved around saving up for one more vehicle.
Nothing related to the Overdrive sets was cheap.
For those not in the know, Anki Overdrive is a slot car system without the the slots, operated by a mobile phone app.
The vehicles detect microdots on the track to determine which lane there are in and where in the race. This information is required because the the app allows you to "fire" offensive and defensive weapons that only exist digitally.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 30 2019, @08:16PM
Actually, that sounds pretty darn cool.