Jibo makes a consumer "social robot" designed to serve as a family-facing smart assistant. The device is intended to handle reminders, order food, take photos and video, send email, connect with internet-of-things devices, and facilitate communication. Jibo began as an Indiegogo project that raised $3.7M and offers an SDK for third-party developers to build features and applications. A full retail-ready version was not yet complete at the time of the article—the prototype could communicate but was functionally limited—and both developer and consumer units were sold out. The company ships to more than 45 countries including the U.S., EU and China and planned to start shipping developer units this fall, with earliest Indiegogo backers receiving orders that winter and later pre-orders arriving in late spring 2016. Jibo was founded by MIT graduate Cynthia Breazeal and does not currently plan an enterprise version. Jibo produces a family-focused social robot that uses artificial intelligence to engage users and serve as a home engagement hub. The company launched last year with a major media push and a successful Indiegogo campaign, taking in roughly 4,800 orders. It also raised about $2.3M via crowdfunding with roughly 5,000 backers. With the new capital Jibo plans to fulfill Indiegogo orders, hire staff aggressively, develop new prototypes, and grow a developer community to build apps for the platform. Initial applications include video chat, a security feature in development, a reminder/list-maker and a storytelling app. Leadership is shifting: founder Cynthia Breazeal moves to chief scientist and Steve Chambers becomes CEO. Jibo is a chipper, 11-inch-tall social robot prototype designed for families, featuring cameras, voice recognition to distinguish individuals, and touch sensitivity. It connects to a cloud platform to store family photos and is designed as an open platform that supports third-party "skills," though its own code is closed. Planned features include telepresence video calls with tracking, handsfree photo and video capture with smile/pose recognition, individualized message and calendar reading, and a storytelling function that combines graphics and physical movement. The developer edition is priced from $599 and aimed to ship in September 2015; the consumer unit is expected to cost around $500 with a consumer release slated for December 2015 and a full public release in early 2016. The project is led by MIT professor and social robotics specialist Dr. Cynthia Breazeal. At the time of reporting, the campaign had raised $356,000+ on Indiegogo and had exceeded its original funding goal by more than 3.5x, while TechCrunch had requested further details about Jibo's privacy policy and data use.

Total raised

$37M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Aug 2015