Misty has had a crazy journey. To Raised $11.5 million from Foundry and Venrock, then Crowdfunding for his personal robotthe company met a number of challenges. Today Swedish social robotics company Furhat robotics offers the struggling startup a soft landing in what the Swedish company says is a cash deal. Furhat is holding back on the financial details of the deal, but tells TechCrunch that the acquisition was designed to give Furhat a head start on the hardware side and allow it to deploy its social robotics software to new platforms.
the oddly named Furhat Robotics plans to keep Misty Robotics’ Colorado home as a base for its US operations and will retain eight of the company’s most senior employees while it finds ways to integrate the two technologies.
“We keep the senior team; the heads of operations, engineering, business development and senior software developers join us,” says Samer Al Moubayed, CEO and co-founder of Furhat Robotics. “Misty has done a great job building a very scalable manufacturing operation and developing the products a reputable partner in China.”
The companies claim they are operating from a “unified vision” and say that Furhat Robotics will continue to support the Misty Robotics brand, help develop and expand the product range, and integrate features from Furhat and Misty to create future social robots improve.
“Acquisitions in the world of social robotics are very rare. In fact, this may be the first time in history that this has happened. It’s just a very early stage of the industry,” says Al Moubayed. “This company grew out of Spiro. What is unique about the robot is that it may look like a toy, but it is very likeable and very approachable. And yet it is extremely advanced. What Misty Robotics have achieved is that they have put the best technologies available in the world into a very likeable robot.”
The Furhat team suggests that their own product – a robot with an animated face projected onto it from behind – is great for social robots that need to have an adult personality, such as a robot. B. airports, train stations or medical applications. What Misty adds to the mix is something that is much more extensible and can be more expressive with his small arms and facial expression. Still, the Furhat team explains that while the two robots look very different, they also have a lot in common.
“For us, Misty is the piece that was missing. It helps us to get access to a larger market that focuses on education, for example,” explains Al Moubayed, explaining how the acquisition came about. “The technologies are very similar, but Misty is great on the hardware front and we are very strong on the software. Instead of building a new robot for educational purposes, Furhat decided to look for another solution.”
“Furhat Robotics is a true pioneer in its field,” commented Ian Bernstein, Founder and Product Lead at Misty Robotics. “We are joining forces to bring the future of robotic applications to the present, and the combination of our specialties means we will see even more incredible real-world applications of this amazing technology in the near future. Social robots are already playing a significant role in our lives, and by applying our combined expertise to solving real-world problems, the sky is the limit.”
