“Anki, the robotics company that has raised over $200 million in venture capital, is laying off its entire staff and the startup is shuttering, Recode has learned,” Theodore Schleifer reports for Recode.
“In a teary all-hands meeting on Monday morning, CEO Boris Sofman told his staff they would be terminated on Wednesday and that close to 200 employees would be paid a week of severance, according to people familiar with the matter,” Schleifer reports. “Anki said last fall that it ‘approached’ $100 million in revenue in 2017 and expected to exceed that figure in 2018. So this isn’t some small lemonade stand closing 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.'”
“Anki, founded by roboticists from Carnegie Mellon University, was a big deal in the robotics world at one point — its first product, Anki Drive, was prominently featured onstage in a demo at an Apple event in 2013” Schleifer reports. “But its buzz has cooled considerably in recent years as some investors grew skittish about hardware plays and others struggled to wrap their heads around what could reductively be considered just a toy business.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good luck to all of those affected by Anki’s closure.
Here’s the Anki DRIVE portion of Apple’s WWDC 2013 Keynote:
SEE ALSO:
Anki, blessed by Apple, takes Artificial Intelligence and robotics to consumers – June 10, 2013
MacDailyNews presents live coverage of Apple’s WWDC 2013 keynote address – June 10, 2013
Can you say, MisManagement? Folks, anyone that can blow through $200 Million in 6 years and have only a couple of games and a silly “robotic pet” to show for it should never have been trusted with $200 million in the first place.
Was Anki skanky and wanky, leaving it’s investors cranky? Maybe Anki should be bought out by Anker, two sets of companies with names that sound like wanker that need a banker to keep them afloat.
What financial hanky panky went on at Anki? Can we blame the Yankee?
Or is this Tim Cook’s fault as HoeB would cry, or as Apple Stinknyc could want us all to believe?
It’s so sad Anki was wonky