Orbotix

The company is founded by Jan Bernstein and Adam Wilson, robotics and programmers. For May, 2014 the central office Orbotix is located in Boulder, the State of Colorado (USA).

Products

The robots developed by the company also use possibilities of smartphones and technology of "augmented reality".

The first product Orbotix – the waterproof Sphero robot sphere, managed C any smartphone or the tablet. In addition to two generations of the device, the company also developed 30 game applications for Sphero including using technologies of augmented reality. In the second half of 2014 of Orbotix is going to release a new game product – Ollie, a reprogrammable cylinder with the increased speed, ample opportunities of customization of design and support of multiplayer games.

For May, 2014 Orbotix already sold hundreds of thousands of devices more than in 35 countries of the world. In addition to own website and the largest online platforms, such as Amazon.com, products of the company are also on sale in tens of thousands offline shops – Apple Store, Brookstone, Staples, Verizon and others. Sphero cost, depending on the version, varies from $79.99 to $129.99. It is possible to leave the preorder on the newest toy of Ollie already today on www.gosphero.com (the planned cost — $99).

It is harder and harder to largest producers of traditional toys to hold the positions while venture funds actively invest in new generation of the startups erasing an edge between physical and virtual game reality. Toys of the future is a synthesis of consumer electronics, artificial intelligence and robotics.

At the same time attractiveness of the products Orbotix far is not limited to children's audience. For example, for May, 2014 Sphero is actively used in education and also third-party developers for creation of new applications.

History

2014: Investments from Grishin Robotics

On May 5, 2014 Grishin Robotics announces investment into Orbotix, the developer of robots toys, managed C mobile devices and using technologies of augmented reality. The general size of a round (Series D) was $15.5 million. For Grishin Robotics it is the eighth transaction, and largest from the moment of foundation of the company in 2012.

Among co-investors of Grishin Robotics there are The Foundry Group funds (the investor of Fitbit, 3D Robotics, MakerBot, Zynga) and Shea Ventures (the investor of Salesforce.com, GigaOm and SolarCity). Orbotix is going to spend the raised funds for new product development and accessories and also for start of additional game applications for robots.

"Orbotix is a unique example of synergy of robotics and show business which has every chance to change traditional idea of toys and to create essentially new category of devices. The strong team already managed to turn Sphero into a legendary product, and I do not doubt that at future developments of the company not smaller potential" — Dmitry Grishin, the co-founder and the CEO of Mail.Ru Group, the founder of Grishin Robotics told.