Anki closes the doors of his toy robot business

The news comes as a surprise, given that things seemed to go well for Anki. Since its launch in 2010, the startup has increased more than $ 200 million in venture capital. Its main products Cozmo and Vector seemed to be successes. Vector launched in the fall after a $ 2 million Kickstarter campaign, and lastly received the Alexa Alexa integration. And Cozmo has been credited with teaching kids to code. The only shadow of doubt seemed to be that the devices appeared more like toys than the advanced AI-based robots they were. Nevertheless, Microsoft, Amazon and Comcast had reportedly expressed interest in obtaining the company.

Anki told Engadget that it pursued all financial avenues to fund its future product development, and that management continues to explore all available options. Meanwhile, employees will receive a week's severance pay, and we may have to say goodbye to the robot couples who had a kind of Pixar-like spunk and wit.

You can read Anki's complete sentence below:

It is with a strong heart to announce that Anki will let go of our employees, effective Wednesday. We have sent millions of units of product and left customers happy all over the world while building some of the most incredible technologies pointed to a future with various AI and robotics applications. But without significant funding to support a hardware and software business and bridge to our long-term product map, it's simply not feasible now. Despite our past successes, we followed every financial avenue to fund our future product development and expand on our platforms. A significant financial agreement at a late stage fell through with a strategic investor and we could not reach an agreement. We do our best to take care of each employee and their families, and management continues to explore all available options.