Anki (American company)

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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]

History

Anki was founded by Boris Sofman, Mark Palatucci, and Hanns Tappeiner, founded officially in 2010 and was headquartered in San Francisco.[6] It also had locations in Europe. (Anki Germany GmbH [1])

Products

Anki Drive, Anki OVERDRIVE, and Anki OVERDRIVE: Fast & Furious Edition

Anki's first product, Anki Drive, was released in Apple stores in the U.S. and Canada, on Apple.com and Anki.com starting October 23, 2013. It retailed for $149.99, with additional cars available for $49.99 and Expansion Tracks for $69.99[11] Anki Drive is a racing game that combined an iOS app, called "Anki Drive," with physical race cars. Each car is equipped with optical sensors, wireless chips, motors, and artificial intelligence software. Anki OVERDRIVE, an upgraded version of Drive with different cars and modular tracks, was released in September 2015. An Anki OVERDRIVE: Fast & Furious Edition was released two years later in 2017, which featured Fast & Furious characters like Dom and Hobbs.

Cozmo

Main article: Cozmo
Anki Cozmo

In October 2016, Anki launched Cozmo in the US. Cozmo is a robot about 4 inches by 3 by 2 inches. It is mostly white, with red details, and gray on the end of its robot arm. There is a light on top of its body, with a gray border, which can shine different colors. A "collector's edition" Cozmo was released in 2017, with a "Liquid Metal" smoked gray chrome finish.[12] A "limited edition" Cozmo, with an "Interstellar Blue" blue, white, and gray finish, was released in 2018.[12]

Cozmo comes with three illuminated cubes it communicates with in order to play games and can autonomously move, lift and roll the cubes, and the cubes are powered by LR1, N, AM5, E90, batteries for power. Production of Cozmo ceased in May 2019 when Anki shutdown due to lack of funding.

Cozmo was able to see its surroundings and discern animals, making it notably playful among children. The robot's primary focus was for children to learn to code, and until its abrupt shutdown in 2019, Cozmo was one of the most popular toys in the United States, winning the Bronze Anvil Award and being recognized by major companies like NAPPA.

Vector

Anki Vector

In August 2018, Anki launched Vector. It was designed to be more helpful, instead of being purely a toy. It is approximately the same size as Cozmo, and its design and shape is essentially the same, except Vector is mostly black with gray details and has a gold border around its light on top, which shines green by default, blue when waiting for a voice command, red when muted, white when thinking, and slowly flashing orange when experiencing Wi-Fi connection difficulties. Vector uses an array of 4 beaming microphones to find out exactly where you are, as well as a gold touchpad where it can be petted. Vector has facial recognition technology and can respond to voice commands. It is cloud-connected and will update automatically. Its first major update came out on December 17, 2018, which allowed Vector to connect to Amazon Alexa. The robot, post-Anki shutdown, when asked about the company Anki, would give a heartfelt response. Customers of the product worried that due to the shutdown, Vector would not be able to use its internet connection features; however, they ultimately prevailed, upgrading when Digital Dream Labs took over the company after its downfall.

References

  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. ^ a b 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.
  11. ^ "Anki announces release date for Anki Drive robotic race cars". October 17, 2013.
  12. ^ a b "Cozmo Limited Edition Coming Soon | Anki". Anki US. Retrieved May 9, 2020.[permanent dead link]
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