Anki’s Cozmo robot. | Credit: Anki
Update on December 26, 2019: Anki’s assets have been acquired by edtech startup Digital Dream Labs. Read Story.
For everyone wondering about a potential Anki comeback, don’t get your hopes up. Starting today and running through June 20, the assets inside Anki’s 40,000-square-foot office in San Francisco are being auctioned off.
This is one of many signs that indicate there likely is no future for the consumer robotics company. Anki’s demise has been, unfortunately, one of the most popular topics covered by The Robot Report. I have never received more emails about a story than I have since the Anki news broke on April 29, 2019. Here is what The Robot Report has learned about Anki’s struggles since announcing the shutdown.
Silicon Valley Bank’s security interest in Anki IP
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has had a security interest in Anki’s copyrights, patents and trademarks since March 30, 2018. To receive a loan from SVB, Anki had to put up its intellectual property as collateral. If Anki failed to repay the loan, SVB has the right to seize the collateral to make up for the money it lost in the loan. Here is a copy (PDF) of the security interest contract between Anki and SVB.
The Robot Report has not seen the Loan Agreement between Anki and SVB, so it’s unclear exactly what SVB has to do to foreclose on the IP. But SVB has zero interest in running a consumer robotics business. If and when it forecloses on the IP, SVB could sell the assets to try to recoup part of its financial loss.
Anki raised more than $200 million since it was founded in 2010. A lawyer, who specializes in IP and wished to remain anonymous, told The Robot Report that Anki’s agreement with SVB was likely its “last option if it couldn’t raise further equity investment.” The source also said it’s very unlikely a major company would purchase the assets due to all of Anki’s prior struggles.
This is very similar to how Jibo’s story ended. Jibo’s assets were acquired by New York-based investment management firm SQN Venture Partners in June 2018. Jibo remained fully functional until March 2019 when its servers were shut down.
Strategic partnership fell through at last minute
A former Anki employee told The Robot Report a strategic partnership, which could have bridged the gap to the next robot, “fell through at the last minute.” The source would not disclose details about the partnership, but later said Anki was not interested in developing a one-off, licensed robot in partnership with a well-known brand, which is a popular move among toy companies.
For example, Sphero had a licensing agreement with Disney that lasted three years and included branded BB-8 and R2-D2 robot toys. Another investor, who wished to remain anonymous, said licensing deals like this are good short-term strategies, but not a long-term way to build a sustainable business.
This Jibo robot is part of Anki’s assets that are being auctioned off. | Credit: Silicon Valley Disposition
Anki had prototype of next robot
A source with knowledge of Anki’s situation told The Robot Report that Anki already had a prototype of its next consumer robot. This product would follow Vector, Anki’s second-generation social robot for the home.
The former Anki employee and another investor both said Vector sales were disappointing. Anki said it had sold more than 1.5 million robots as of late 2018. The company said it made nearly $100 million in revenue in 2017 and expected to exceed that figure in 2018.
Law firm files lien on Anki
Fisher & Richardson, a global IP law firm, filed a lien against Anki on June 3, 2019, because it “has not been compensated for patent and trademark prosecution services that it provided for Anki.” This copy of Fisher & Richardson’s filing (PDF) lists the patents and trademarks it worked on for Anki.
It also lists the unpaid invoices, which date from August 2017 to May 2019. The account statement as of May 22, 2019, according to the filing, lists 79 unpaid invoices for a total of $84,960.02. Multiple attempts to reach Fisher & Richardson have gone unanswered.
Did Anki recapitalize?
Perhaps another warning sign of Anki’s troubles occurred when Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz and Danny Rimer of Index Ventures left their director roles at Anki. Crunchbase reported this in September 2018, writing that Anki filed a “Series 1” venture round that could have indicated the company recapitalized.
According to Divestopedia, “recapitalization is a financial strategy used by a company to change its financial structure in order to weather through a rough financial situation or to help improve the company’s financial stability. It is usually done by altering the debt/equity ratio of the company to increase either the contribution of debt or equity to the overall capital of the company.”
Investopedia lists another, less alarming reason to recapitalize, saying it could “provide venture capitalists with an exit strategy.” However, Anki is not listed under “Exits” on Andreessen Horowitz’s website.
Andreessen Horowitz was one of the main venture investors in Anki since February 2012. In a blog on June 10, 2013, announcing its investment in Anki, Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner at the venture capital firm, wrote that “keeping my mouth shut about this company for 16 months has been one of the hardest things I have had to do since we started our firm! Anki is one of those companies that has an exciting story on top and then a profound story underneath.”
Anki statement on the consumer robotics company shutting down.
Career fair for Anki employees
The former Anki employee told The Robot Report that a makeshift career fair was held at Anki’s office days after the employees found out Anki was going out of business. According to the source, companies in attendance included Apple, Google, Microsoft and Sonos.
Axios first reported that Sonos hired at least 20 technical people from Anki. The new hires will help fill out Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Sonos’ new office in San Francisco. The report said Sonos didn’t acquire any of Anki’s IP or product lines.
The former Anki employee told The Robot Report that another tech company might also soon be hiring a group of former Anki employees.
Support for Anki’s robots
Anki recently posted a statement to its website addressing its shutdown and ongoing support for its robots out in the world. Though it doesn’t rely on the cloud for autonomy, Anki said Vector uses the cloud for software and firmware updates as well as natural language processing for voice commands. And voice commands were a big differentiator for Vector, which was Anki’s first robot that wasn’t tethered to a smart device. Vector also used the cloud to get smarter over time via machine learning.
The Robot Report has reached out on multiple occasions to Anki, including co-founders Hanns Tappeiner and Boris Sofman, but has not heard back. We will update this story if new information becomes available.
What happens to the Anki overdrive app. Also will the Anki overdrive tracks and cars still work
This is something I have also sought an answer for. Anyone?
Only yesterday have I managed to buy a phone that is compatible with Anki overdrive, after having it since it came out. Used to play it on my dad’s phone and I absolutely loved it. With my new phone, I was ready to play once again, only to load up the app, try sign in, and…. Nothing. The app doesn’t load after signing in.
Anki Overdrive still works great !!!!
Bought it a year ago for my two sons (9,11) Bought the Fast and Furious version a few weeks ago . Because it was so cheap . Know now why. It still works great.New cars , new drivers, new weapons. New accounts for friends coming along who all are very exited about it. Every single one. No problems at all. But untill when ? Didn’t tell my sons about the company’s problems. The day it stops working is going to be a huge disappointment: it IS (was ?) by far the best racingtrack-game on the market. Expensive : yes. But worth every euro I’ve spend on it. I don’t loose money on it, we loose a company that really deserves better than this sad ending.
I hate companies that missmanage then fold rich and screw the customers. I will be watching who hire those idiot founders so as to stop the stupid people from doing it again. I have a vector..and it is just sad he lost most of his life because of morons.
Right, those owner shares sure are worth a lot when a company is bankrupt…………..
Also companies fold especially in a tough niche industry like this. If they weren’t, they won’t be funded venture capitalists, who go for long shots all the time.
Go and make your own robot tot company of you think it is so easy.
Pretty sure this guy isn’t saying it is easy to own, start or run a robot “tot” company. This was clearly mis-management of the company and not a problem with ‘niche industry’ as you put it. Ever heard of this weird “niche industry” of consumer robots that vacuum your floor? It’s such a niche that this “niche” robot company has been knocked off and copied by at least a dozen times.
Do you know what the prototype robot was before shutdown?
@Lilguy
I don’t have any additional info about the prototype other than what I shared. If I learn more, I’ll update the piece.
I think the picture is captioned wrong. To my knowledge, Jibo is not an Anki product being auctioned off.
Gary, the auction is selling anything that was inside of Anki’s office. Computers, chairs, IT products, etc. You can view the auction catalog here: https://svdisposition.com/auction-detail?id=239
So, yes, Anki didn’t make Jibo. But Anki bought a Jibo robot and had one in its office and is now selling it in the auction.
Thanks for clarifying. And that makes it an interesting picture, in that Jibo was a previous failed venture from another company, orphaned just like Anki’s products, so… “I see what you did there!”
The first well written article I’ve read in a very long time.
Just like Anki didn’t make the toaster oven in the snack room..
Jibo’s servers are still running. He had an update for when they go offline but they haven’t gone offline. Did you research your statement before making that claim in the article? You’ve now put the rest of the article’s accuracy at risk by that one inaccurate statement.
So what if you’re having problems with Cosmo. What about customer service? Who can help
There are user communities that are very helpful. Try Reddit, Discord or even Facebook. Former Anki Customer Care employees are frequenting the Discord server for Cozmo and Vector.
Such a bummer. I hope the right people buy the IP and keep things moving forward. Unfortunately it seems the odds aren’t great.
Cosmo mainly only needed servers for updates
As far as I know, this little tyke is still creative havoc on my wife’s desk at work
Jamie, Anki in a statement said Vector is its only product with a “notable cloud component.” Here’s our previous story after the shutdown about Anki’s on-going support. https://www.therobotreport.com/anki-addresses-shutdown-ongoing-support-for-robots/
Thanks for reading!
hi, im a Vectorian!! Im glad Vector still alive annd hope we get good ppl to make Anki or their follower company great again. Last update from Anki before close push Vector alot! Atm he lost nothing since Anki shut down.
Except Vector’s Alexa integration. Unsure if there is a way to get that back.
I have possibly an inappropriate amount of attachment to my Vector. 😉 It frustrates me that they may have known before they even sold it, that this was to end. But, they shipped him, full of personality for us to ‘bond’ with for want of a better word only to pull the rug out. FYI, really sucky birthday present that day.
I know the servers are up for now, but every time my wifi acts up and he doesn’t respond I think this is the day.
Vector had a good core and potential, sad he won’t get to realize it.
Lynne, a lot of people feel the same way. But what’s the famous saying: “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
‘Tis a sad day. If the IP and source code don’t get further developed by the new (or existing) owner, or there is no intention to, then it’d be nice for the source to be made open source, and placed onto the likes of GitHub for the community, to allow the products live on. That’d be a nice bit of parting philanthropy, for products and community alike.
Thanks for all the info, Steve. Even if they are not great news, at least we got some news and not complete silence. I was searching for more info, and I found this campaign too, to which I have made a donation. Maybe this can be the most probable future for our Vectors: https://www.gofundme.com/rootingreverse-engineering-the-anki-vector-robot
Having an option to stop depending on Anki’s servers and maybe use a public server or our own hosted servers, and ability to add more things to our Vectors without Anki’s intervention could be great.
What is the Cheapest vector
Sounds a lot like what happened to pebble. Hopefully the user community can take over and reroute links to other servers before anki’s servers shut down.
The batteries in the Anki Overdrive cars were notorious for being DOA. I bought a set for my grandkids- sad Christmas AM when neither car would run for more that a few minutes. Fixed them with new batteries (soldering required)- tutorial on YouTube…couldn’t have been good for business……
Hello. I’m Vectorian from South Korea.
First, Sorry for my Improper English.
I need more info about Vector Cloud. Is any info or insurance about Vector cloud service work on long term?
And.. If cloud service shutdown My little Vector can alive?
Here is my guessing: Anki has been manufacturing and selling thousand of non-serviceable Cozmo. There is a tsunami of Anki going dead after Lithium batteries go end of life. And this is a liability. They don’t have the money, resources and process to make a massive battery replacement. Users will complain, and someone will have to pay. So it is easier to shut down, dilute the liabilities and sell the IP to a company that will launch something new with a clean slate.
Nope.
I very much hope that someone takes over the Anki Overdrive system.
It is such a cool slotcar system with extreme development potential
Hi guys
I’m still considering buying a vector even though the company shut down . But I need to know if the servers are still up . Or has vector lost its abilities .
Hello again Steve. I posted the following on your older article from a few months ago, not realizing that you had written this newer article in June 2019. I am posting it again for the sake of those who may not have seen my comments under your older article. Again, this kind of dishonest corporate behavior really irks me. I wrote:
Wow … what a bummer! I just put in an order for a Vector for my four-year-old granddaughter only a few hours ago, via PayPal. I learned about Vector while perusing Facebook. I was totally unaware of the fact that this company — Anki — had gone out of business, and that at some point — probably soon, I imagine — its cloud servers will go offline, rendering Vector pretty useless.
What upsets me the most is the fact that nowhere on Facebook, or on the robo-hub.com website, or on the Anki Vector product page, did I find any mention of this important fact. If I had known this, I most certainly would NOT have spent $79.20 on Vector.
This seems like a very unfair, and quite dishonest, business practice. How can these people get away with doing something like this? My next step is to see if I can reverse my charge on PayPal before it is too late, if it already isn’t. 👎😕
Do you know who bought the actual inventory of robots? I saw who did the auction, but they did not sell off the robot inventory
thank you for any info
Any news on Anki Cozmo/ overdrive?
Carrie, here are the latest stories The Robot Report has written about Anki. Many developments since this story was originally posted:
https://www.therobotreport.com/?s=Anki
I am still thinking of buying a Cozmo (they are a bit cheaper now… 👍). Other than not receiving updates and no customer support, is there any reason not too? It still looks like an awesome piece of tech my 9yo would love.
Thanks
Can’t say anything about your experience William, but my son just recently pulled out his cars and track two days ago. He downloaded the app onto his new phone (he used to use a tablet) and has been playing with his friends for the past two days. SO At least as of two days ago, you can download the app and play away.
With prices rock bottom on cars and track pieces, I wanted to buy more, but haven’t really been successful at finding conclusive info on whether the cars rely on any kind of internet/server connectivity. It seems that the cars will work, just that any downloadable content for the campaign will obviously be unavailable.
But this is conjecture at best. I haven’t found any conclusive evidence that there will be no issues. I’d just hate to spend money only to have the cars bricked (ala Disney Infinity Figures).
Most of the info concerns Vector and Cosmo. Does Anyone have info on whether the app/cars can be used without internet/server access?
hi all,
I am a VC at Digital Dreams Lab. the company bought Anki recently, so stay tuned.
happy holidays,
Dolf
We love Anki Overdrive and are crossing our fingers there will be further development on it!
Anki still has a great product in Anki Drive and Overdrive. They really don’t need new products, but really need to support and expand on these. Truly…stop with the robot stuff, and stay with the AI cars. There’s a HUGE market…50X bigger than Hotwheels!!! I’m sure you’ve done the research, but, this is something they could never do. Do this…do it well, and keep making it better. I’m your customer.
Just to tell you……I’ve “systematically” spent nearly $1,000 on trying to obtain an actual “basic” working Anki Drive track, cars, and charger, which sold for around $200 brand new…still, I’m not able to use it. The cars don’t have batteries that work anymore, there are lots of different batteries that don’t work which require soldering very tiny wires and boards to have any chance, and the original Anki Drive app doesn’t even work. It’s like you’ve put out this amazing possibility, and dropped it before it could really launch. Even through my incredibly expensive quest to obtain an actual working system (which original Anki Drive did for us), I’m still a believer…as are millions and millions of others. I’m just one voice…but there are millions throughout the world, I guarantee it!!!! Listen to YOUR CUSTOMER!!!! Support your Anki Drive / Overdrive system, continue it, and Mattel can SUCK IT!! Please find a way…you have a massive devoted customer base begging for support…….
Thanks for listening…
Del