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Anki, a startup of robotics and toys for AI that has collected about $ 200 million over time, has closed, confirmed the company (Recode had originally revealed the 39; story).
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In an e-mail statement, Anki's communications manager told us:
It is with a heavy heart to announce that Anki will drop our employees as of Wednesday. We have shipped millions of product units and left satisfied customers around the world, while developing some of the most incredible technologies that are looking to the future with various applications based on artificial intelligence and robotics . But without significant funding to support a hardware and software company and bridge to our long-term product roadmap, this is simply not feasible at the moment. Despite our past successes, we have looked for all the financial possibilities to finance the development of our future products and expand our platforms. A major financial agreement was reached late with a strategic investor and we were unable to reach an agreement. We do our best to care for every employee and their families, and our management team continues to explore all available options.
Anki was perhaps the best funded startup in the field of connected toys. Over time, according to Crunchbase data, Anki had collected at least $ 182 million from investors such as Two Sigma Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures, among others. Founded in 2010 by three graduates of the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute, Anki was considered a "darling" in the field. The venture capitalist Marc Andreessen in a 2013 blog post titled Anki is the "best robotics start-up" that he has ever seen. Andreessen has previously served on the company's board of directors, according to documents filed by the SEC at the time. A spokesman for the company told Crunchbase News last September that its revenue for 2017 "is approaching $ 100 [million]"And the revenues should exceed that of 2018.
In 2016, Mary Ann had interviewed the company for another publication and Sofman had said: "We created Anki with the goal of harnessing robotics and AI to bring life to life. consumer products with a level of intellect and unprecedented interactive capabilities. "
But its closure is not entirely a surprise.
In September 2018, we hedged a probable financial restructuring of the company, which was highlighted in two SEC filings. The first document described in detail a "Preferred Series 1" share transaction of $ 27.24 million. Crunchbase News had already seen the label of Series 1 when we announced that the Andreessen-backed t-shirt design market had been recapitalized, thus erasing tens of millions of dollars of common stock. The last series referred to by Anki prior to the agreement on Series 1 was a Series D. Based on previous experience with portfolio companies in Andreessen Horowitz's portfolio, there was good reason to believe that Anki investors had recapitalized the company in 2018.
Illustration: Li-Anne Dias
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