Anki (American company)

This article is about American robotics and technology company. For the flashcard-based memorization software, see Anki (software). For the Finnish rug manufacturer, see Anki (Finnish company).
Anki
Company typePrivate
IndustryRobotics, artificial intelligence, and coding
Founded2010
FounderBoris Sofman, Mark Palatucci, and Hanns Tappeiner
DefunctMay 2019; 5 years ago (2019-05)[1]
FateAcquired
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
,
U.S.
ProductsCozmo
Vector
Anki Overdrive
Anki Drive
Websiteddlbots.com (acquirer)
anki.com at the Wayback Machine (archived 2020-03-16)

Anki (stylized as "anki") was an American robotics and artificial intelligence startup[2] that put robotics technology in products for children. Anki programmed physical objects to be intelligent and adaptable in the physical world,[3][4] and aimed to solve the problems of positioning, reasoning, and execution in artificial intelligence and robotics.

The company debuted Anki Drive during the 2013[5] Apple Worldwide Developers Conference keynote.[6]

The company received $50 million in Series A and Series B venture funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, and Two Sigma.[2] In September 2014, Anki announced that it has raised another $55 million in Series C venture funding led by JP Morgan. In June 2016, the company announced its latest round of funding, which amounted to $502.5M, also led by JP Morgan.[7] Total funding to date is $182.5 million. Marc Andreessen and Danny Rimer serve on the company's board, in addition to the three co-founders, who met each other at Carnegie Mellon University prior to the debut of the company.

It went bankrupt in April 2019 after losing a critical round of funding[8] and shut down the following month.[1][9]

In December 2019, Anki assets, including OVERDRIVE, Cozmo, and Vector, were acquired by Digital Dream Labs. Digital Dream Labs revamped Cozmo and Vector, making Cozmo 2.0 and Vector 2.0 versions to further enhance the qualities of the robots and build on top of Anki's success; however, these products ultimately achieved less success than Anki did with the original products.[10]

  1. ^ a b Statt, Nick (April 29, 2019). "Robot toy company Anki is going out of business". The Verge. Retrieved April 29, 2019.
  2. ^ a b Tsotsis, Alexia (June 10, 2013). "Anki Debuts Serious Robotics AI With Fun Racing Game At WWDC, Raises $50M Led By A16Z". TechCrunch. AOL Tech. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
  3. ^ Dorrier, Jason (June 11, 2013). "AI STARTUP ANKI DEBUTS AT WWDC, WOWS WITH IMPRESSIVE TECH, $50 MILLION IN FUNDING". SingularityHUB. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
  4. ^ Terdiman, Daniel (June 10, 2013). "Anki, blessed by Apple, takes AI and robotics to consumers". CNET. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
  5. ^ "Anki das Roboter Startup". roboter-spielzeuge.de (in German). Retrieved February 21, 2022.
  6. ^ Fiegerman, Seth (June 11, 2013). "Startup's Dream of Launching at an Apple Event". Mashable. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
  7. ^ "Anki raises $53m as money pours into AI start-ups". www.ft.com. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  8. ^ "What Happened To Anki? - Digital Dream Labs Knowledge Base". support.digitaldreamlabs.com. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
  9. ^ Simon, Matt (April 29, 2019). "R.I.P., Anki: Yet Another Home Robotics Company Powers Down". Wired. Retrieved April 29, 2019.
  10. ^ Crowe, Steve (December 27, 2019). "Anki assets acquired by edtech startup Digital Dream Labs". The Robot Report. WTWH Media, LLC. Retrieved March 10, 2020.