Anki, the San Francisco-based robotics company that specialized in making smartphone-controlled toys, is shutting down this week, reports Recode. The sudden news, delivered to staff today by CEO Boris Sofman, means the company’s staff of nearly 200 people will lose their jobs by Wednesday, with only one week of severance. Anki raised more than $200 million in venture capital funding to date.
According to Recode, Anki ran out of money and could no longer “support a hardware and software business” that would enable it to achieve its “long-term product roadmap.” Last August, Anki said it had sold 1.5 million robot units to date, which appears to have included both its toy cars and personal robots. That wasn’t enough to keep the business...
