Roomba Co-Founder Starts New Venture: Developing a New Type of Home Robot and Seeking $30 Million in Funding

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Published inAI News · 6 min read · Dec 17, 2024

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Colin Angle, one of the co-founders of the Oomba robotic vacuum, is raising funds for his new home robotics project.

Documents from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reveal that Angle's new company, Familiar Machines & Magic, is seeking to raise $30 million. Currently, the company has raised $15 million from eight investors.

The Form D document does not disclose the specific identities of the investors. However, the website of Data Point Capital lists Familiar Machines as one of its portfolio companies.

Robot Cooking

Image Source Note: Image generated by AI, image licensed from service provider Midjourney

Familiar Machines has registered domain names and trademark applications but has not yet established an official website. Angle did not respond to a request for comment from reporters via LinkedIn messages.

In a recent interview with the Boston Globe, Angle stated that Familiar Machines is based in Boston and plans to open a branch in Los Angeles, focusing on developing a new type of home robot centered on health and wellness. In addition to Angle, the company's co-founders include former iRobot CTO Chris Jones and senior iRobot employee Ira Renfrew. Notably, Renfrew was also involved in the creation of Amazon's now-defunct Scout delivery robot.

According to the Globe, citing an investor, Familiar Machines is exploring the possibility of using robots as companions, including "furry pets" with AI capabilities. The company is hiring positions such as AI researchers and software engineers.

Familiar Machines stated in its LinkedIn job postings: "We are pioneering an exciting new category of home robots focused on health and wellness, with a particular emphasis on human-robot interaction. Embodied and agent-based AI are at the core of our product vision."

In January of this year, after Amazon's acquisition of iRobot failed due to opposition from EU antitrust regulators, Angle resigned from iRobot. iRobot was forced to lay off 31% of its workforce and appointed former Procter & Gamble general manager Gary Cohen as the new CEO.

Angle has previously ventured into the home robotics space. According to the Globe, in the early 2000s, iRobot developed a prototype home companion robot named Grommet.

However, the home robotics market has proven to be a tough nut to crack.

In 2018, Mayfield Robotics, backed by Bosch, halted production of its Kuri companion robot amid uncertain prospects. That same year, desktop robot manufacturer Jibo also ceased operations. The company behind the popular robot Cozmo, Anki, shut down in 2019. Just last week, Moxie, a company developing AI robots for children, also suddenly went out of business.

Yet these failures have not deterred tech giants from moving forward. Amazon is still working to find a market position for its Astro home robot, while Apple is reportedly developing a home robot in some form.

According to Markets and Markets, the value of the home robotics market could reach $24.5 billion by 2028. Since 2019, around 1,500 robotics startups have raised approximately $90 billion, according to data from Fidelity's venture capital arm, F-Prime.

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