Anki (company)

Anki was a 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.

This article is about the robotics and technology company. For the flashcard-based memorization software, see Anki (software). For the Finnish rug manufacturer, see Anki (Finnish company).
Anki
TypePrivate
IndustryRobotics and artificial intelligence
Founded2010
FounderBoris Sofman, Mark Palatucci, and Hanns Tappeiner
DefunctMay 2019 (2019-05)[1]
Headquarters
San Francisco
,
USA
ProductsCozmo
Vector
Anki Overdrive
Websiteanki.com

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

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 $52.5M, also led by JP Morgan.[6] 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.[2]

It went bankrupt in April 2019 and shut down the following month.[1][7]

In December 2019, Anki assets, including OVERDRIVE, Cozmo, and Vector, were acquired by Digital Dream Labs.[8]

History

Anki was founded by Boris Sofman, Mark Palatucci, and Hanns Tappeiner, founded officially in 2010 and was headquartered in San Francisco.[5] It also had locations in Europe.

Products

Anki Drive and Anki OVERDRIVE

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[9] 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.

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 grey border, which can shine different colors. A "collector's edition" Cozmo was released in 2017, with a "Liquid Metal" smoked grey chrome finish.[10] A "limited edition" Cozmo, with an "Interstellar Blue" blue, white, and grey finish, was released in 2018.[10]

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

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 are essentially the same, except Vector are mostly black with gray details and 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 4 beaming microphone array to find out exactly where you are, and A gold touchpad where he 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.

References
  1. Statt, Nick (29 April 2019). "Robot toy company Anki is going out of business". The Verge. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  2. 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 (11 June 2013). "AI STARTUP ANKI DEBUTS AT WWDC, WOWS WITH IMPRESSIVE TECH, $50 MILLION IN FUNDING". SingularityHUB. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  4. Terdiman, Daniel (10 June 2013). "Anki, blessed by Apple, takes AI and robotics to consumers". CNET. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  5. Fiegerman, Seth (11 June 2013). "Startup's Dream of Launching at an Apple Event". Mashable. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  6. "Subscribe to read". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2017-01-10. Cite uses generic title (help)
  7. Simon, Matt (29 April 2019). "R.I.P., Anki: Yet Another Home Robotics Company Powers Down". Wired. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  8. Crowe, Steve. "Anki assets acquired by edtech startup Digital Dream Labs". The Robot Report. WTWH Media, LLC. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  9. "Anki announces release date for Anki Drive robotic race cars".
  10. "Cozmo Limited Edition Coming Soon | Anki". Anki US. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
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