Jibo

Jibo was a Boston-based social robot startup founded in 2012.³⁵ The company raised nearly $73 million in venture capital and sold its IP assets to SQN Venture Partners in 2018.⁵ Jibo shut down its servers in 2019, leaving its robots with limited functionality.²⁶

Timeline

Money raised

Jibo raised more than $3.5 million through a 2014 Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.⁵ Jibo raised a $25.3 million Series A round in January 2015, led by RRE Ventures.¹¹ Jibo raised an additional $16 million in December 2015 to bring its robot to China and Japan.⁸¹⁰ PitchBook said the December 2015 round brought Jibo's valuation to $128.45 million.⁸¹⁰ Jibo raised nearly $73 million in venture capital in total.⁵ Jibo was valued at $200 million and had 95 employees as late as November 2016 according to Pitchbook.⁴ Jibo sold its IP assets to SQN Venture Partners in 2018.³⁵

Investors named in the sources: RRE Ventures¹¹, CRV¹¹, Fairhaven¹¹, Osage University Partners¹¹, Flybridge Capital Partners¹¹, Two Sigma Ventures¹¹, Formation 8¹¹, Samsung Ventures¹¹, Samsung⁸, Acer⁸, Dentsu Ventures⁸, KDDI⁸, NetPosa⁸, Fenox Venture Capital⁸, Ningbo GQY⁸, Charles River Ventures⁴, SQN Venture Partners³⁵.

What happened

Jibo was founded in 2012.³⁵ Jibo was co-founded by MIT's Cynthia Breazeal.⁴ Jibo raised more than $3.5 million through a 2014 Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign.⁵ Jibo raised a $25.3 million Series A round in January 2015.¹¹ Jibo raised an additional $16 million in December 2015.⁸¹⁰

Jibo cancelled overseas orders in mid-2016 due to localization issues.⁵ Jibo started shipping its first units in September 2017.⁵ Jibo opened sales to the general public in October 2017 with a price tag of $899.⁵ Jibo was featured on the cover of Time Magazine as one of the best innovations of 2017.³ Jibo laid off an unspecified number of employees in December 2017.⁶

The Jibo CEO was replaced in January 2018.⁶ Jibo laid off much of its workforce in June 2018.³⁴⁶ SQN Venture Partners acquired Jibo's assets on June 20, 2018.⁴⁵ Jibo filed a withdrawal of its certificate of registration in Massachusetts on November 14, 2018.¹⁵ Jibo sold its IP assets to SQN Venture Partners in 2018.³⁵

Jibo announced the imminent shutdown of its servers in March 2019.²⁶ Jibo's servers were shut down, limiting the robot's interactions.²⁶ Jibo owners were not notified by the company about the shutdown.⁶ Jibo's support pages went offline sometime before March 2019.⁶ Jibo robots began to malfunction as servers degraded.⁶

Jibo owners reported the robot delivering a farewell message.²⁶ Jibo's blue ring no longer lit up to indicate it could hear users after the farewell message.⁶ Jibo's assets were sold to SQN Venture Partners, a New York-based investment management firm.³⁵ Jibo's IP assets were acquired by SQN Venture Partners.⁵ Jibo's California office was marked as permanently closed in June 2018.⁴

Jibo had 95 employees as late as November 2016 according to Pitchbook.⁴ Jibo was valued at $200 million as late as November 2016 according to Pitchbook.⁴ Jibo's Indiegogo campaign had 4,800 orders.¹¹ Jibo raised $2.3 million in its crowdfunding campaign with 5,000 people committing funding.¹¹ Jibo's robot was billed as the first social robot for the home.⁵⁶

Jibo's robot was designed to recognize household members, take photos, read books, and relay messages.⁶ Jibo's robot could initiate conversations and ask about the user's day.⁶ Jibo's robot had cameras in its face and sensors in its body.⁶ Jibo's robot was a foot-tall plastic robot with a head that tilts.⁶ Jibo's robot had a black display face with an emotive white eye.⁶

Jibo's robot could dance, tell the weather, play the radio, and answer basic questions.⁶ Jibo's robot had a personal report that included news and commute time.⁶ Jibo's robot could play games like Word of the Day or Circuit Breaker.⁶ Jibo's robot was compared to Amazon Alexa and Google Home.⁴⁶ Jibo's robot had only a small portion of the promised skills when it arrived.⁶

Jibo's robot received unfavorable user reviews.⁴ Jibo's robot was delayed multiple times, forcing Indiegogo to offer full refunds for unfulfilled orders.⁵ Jibo's robot was cancelled for overseas orders due to localization issues.⁵ Jibo's robot faced competition from cheaper smart speakers from Amazon and Google.⁵ Jibo's robot was unable to establish enough momentum to overcome its price point.⁴

Jibo's robot was still functioning in the field with full services according to an anonymous source.⁵ Jibo's robot owners were left in the dark about the company's closure.⁶ Jibo's robot owners were not given a way to retrieve their personal data.⁶ Jibo's robot owners expressed sadness and confusion on Reddit.⁶ Jibo's robot owners were not offered a proper goodbye by the company.⁶

Where the founders are now

Cynthia Breazeal co-founded Jibo in 2012.⁴ Cynthia Breazeal was the founder and chief executive of Jibo, and later took on the role of chief scientist.¹¹ Steve Chambers, former president of Nuance Communications, assumed the chief executive role in January 2015.¹¹ Barry Kallander was the last president of Jibo.⁵

Sources

1. Boston-based robot startup Jibo powers down, bizjournals.com, Nov 28, 20
2. The lonely death of Jibo, the social robot | TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 2019-03-04
3. Social Robot Maker Jibo Calls It Quits, mediapost.com
4. Jibo Shuts Down, Selling Off Robot Parts - Voicebot.ai, Voicebot.ai, 2018-12-03
5. Social robot maker Jibo sells off assets, The Robot Report, 2018-11-27
6. My Jibo Is Dying and It's Breaking My Heart, WIRED, 2019-03-08
8. Jibo raises another $16 Million to bring its ‘Family Robot’ to China And Japan - Robohub, Robohub
10. Jibo Raises Another $16 Million To Bring Its 'Family Robot ..., forbes.com, Dec 9, 201
11. Robotics Co. Jibo Says Domo Arigato To $25.3 Million In Cash | TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 2015-01-21

How this case file was put together

Every statement on this page carries a numbered note, and every note points to a court record, a regulatory filing or a named publication in the list of sources. Each statement was checked against the text of the sources it cites before it was published: a figure, a date or a name the cited source does not contain was cut rather than kept. Allegations are shown as allegations, with their status at the time of the source (filed, charged, convicted, pleaded, settled, dismissed or pending). Quoted lessons are the words of the person or publication named with them, copied from the cited source; nothing here is our own opinion of why the company failed.

If a fact on this page is wrong, use "Report an error" below and attach the record that shows the correct fact. Every report is reviewed by a person before anything changes, and a corrected page says when it was last corrected.

All case files2018robotics