Anki

**Anki** (styled as *anki*) was an American robotics and artificial intelligence startup that put robotics technology in products for children.

## Opening

Founded: 2010

Founder: Boris Sofman, Mark Palatucci, and Hanns Tappeiner

## Over the years...

Products: Cozmo, Vector, Anki Overdrive, Anki Drive

## Legacy

Bankrupt Year: 2019

Bought buy: Digital Dream Labs

# Products

Anki has released 4 different products throughout the years:

## Anki Drive and OVERDRIVE

Main article: Anki Overdrive
Anki Drive was their first product, debuting to stores in October 23, 2013. It retailed for $149.99, with additional cars available for $49.99. Anki Drive is a racing game that combined an iOS app, called "Anki Drive," with physical race cars. Each car is equipped with optical sensors, wireless chips, motors, and artificial intelligence software. Anki OVERDRIVE, an upgraded version of Drive with different cars and modular tracks, was released and discontinued Drive in September 2015.
The next big instalment for Anki, OVERDRIVE war released on September of 2015. It contained 2 cars, 2 riser pieces, 6 curved track pieces, and 4 straight track pieces. This time, you connect track pieces to form a track with a closed loop, then, the cars scan the track and build it in the app. The same mechanics are use for the weapons.

## Cozmo

Main article: Cozmo
Cozmo is Anki's 3rd project releaced in 2016. It is combined using AI and cameras to track where it is. He has a mind of his own, and loves to play! Cozmo is about 4 inches by 3 by 2 inches. It is mostly white, with red details, and gray on the end of its robot arm. There is a light on top of its body, with a gray border, which can shine different colors. A "collector's edition" Cozmo was released in 2017, with a "Liquid Metal" smoked gray chrome finish. A "limited edition" Cozmo, with an "Interstellar Blue" blue, white, and gray finish, was released in 2018.

## Vector

Main article: Vector
In August 2018, Anki launched Vector. It was designed to be more helpful, instead of being purely a toy. It is approximately the same size as Cozmo, and its design and shape is essentially the same, except Vector is mostly black with gray details and has a gold border around its light on top, which shines green by default, blue when waiting for a voice command, red when muted, white when thinking, and slowly flashing orange when experiencing Wi-Fi connection difficulties. Vector uses an array of 4 beaming microphones to find out exactly where you are, as well as a gold touchpad where it can be petted. Vector has facial recognition technology and can respond to voice commands. It is cloud-connected and will update automatically. Its first major update came out on December 17, 2018, which allowed Vector to connect to Amazon Alexa.

# Legacy

The company received $50 million in Series A and Series B venture funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, and Two Sigma. In September 2014, Anki announced that it has raised another $55 million in Series C venture funding led by JP Morgan. In June 2016, the company announced its latest round of funding, which amounted to $52.5M, also led by JP Morgan. Total funding to date is $182.5 million. Marc Andreessen and Danny Rimer serve on the company's board, in addition to the three co-founders.

It went bankrupt in April 2019 and shut down the following month.

In December 2019, Anki assets, including OVERDRIVE, Cozmo, and Vector, were acquired by Digital Dream Labs.