Do you remember Vector, one of the most adorable robots made to date? It was created by Anki as the perfect artificial companion to the entire family and it really warmed up a lot of hearts with its quirks and expressive digital little face.
While Vector might be recognizable figure on the market, it doesn’t seem like the little robot was strong enough to carry the company all by itself – according to Recode, Anki CEO Boris Sofman announced to his staff during a meeting that took place on Monday that they would be terminated as of Wednesday and that around 200 employees will receive a week of severance.
By all accounts, Sofman had told the employees a week before that the company had trouble finding financial support after a last minute fall-out.
Anki told Recode in a statement that it was left “without significant funding to support a hardware and software business and bridge to our long-term product roadmap” and, in spite of its past success “a significant financial deal at a late stage fell through with a strategic investor and we were not able to reach an agreement. We’re doing our best to take care of every single employee and their families, and our management team continues to explore all options available.”
This news comes as a big surprise, considering Anki had strong sales in the past and managed to raise $200 million in venture capital but the situation looks quite bleak at the moment.
However, company will press on for as long as it possibly can and stated that it will do its best to seek out any other viable financial options to continue the work it has set out to do.
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