Romotive builds compact personal robots called Romo that can navigate autonomously, recognize faces, and enable telepresence for remote interaction. The company’s Romo 3 has 22 behaviors and expressions and is priced at $150, and has been featured in a Neiman Marcus catalogue. Romotive plans to open the platform to third‑party developers so others can build apps for the robot. The team of 18 shipped their first DIY units built in an apartment and now plans mass production at a factory in China capable of producing thousands per week. Romotive is running Kickstarter campaigns to fund product runs (the second campaign raised $24,000 early on and was 17% funded by noon on day one). Financially, the startup has earlier backing from the Downtown Project and announced a $5 million Series A to grow the team. Romotive produces hardware and software that combine the computing power of smartphones with the mechanics of moving machines. The company builds flexible robotics platforms powered by iOS and Android phones, adding movement, accessories and physical capabilities. It plans to produce a consumer robot called Romo and distributes companion software via the iTunes App Store and Android Market. Apps currently include RomoRemote, which turns Romo into a spy robot. Romotive is co-founded by Phu Nguyen and Peter Seid and is based in Seattle, WA. The startup used crowdfunding to finance initial production.

Total raised

$5M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Oct 2012