Anki, the San Francisco-based robotics and artificial intelligence startup, has announced that it will be closing its doors. Despite being featured on-stage at Apple events and raising more than $200 million in funding, the company says it has run out of money and options, forcing the company to shut down.
The company said in a statement to Recode that it was left “without significant funding to support a hardware and software business and bridge to our long-term product roadmap.”
“Despite our past successes, we pursued every financial avenue to fund our future product development and expand on our platforms,” a company spokesperson said. “A significant financial deal at a late stage fell through with a strategic investor and we were not able to reach an agreement. We’re doing our best to take care of every single employee and their families, and our management team continues to explore all options available.”
You might remember the Anki Drive, the racing game that combined physical race cars with an iOS app, that Anki showed off on stage during Apple’s WWDC keynote back in 2013. The firm also saw success with Cozmo, its mini robot with a one-of-a-kind personality that evolves the more you hang out.
Anki approached $100m in revenue in 2017, and it’s believed it may have exceeded that last year. There was even talk of acquisition with companies like Amazon and Microsoft, but that obviously never came to pass. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone swoops in to save the firm, some of its staff, or at least its tech.
Source: Recode