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In a statement via email, Anki’s head of communications told us:

It is with a heavy heart to announce that Anki will be letting go of our employees, effective Wednesday. We鈥檝e shipped millions of units of product and left customers happy all over the world while building some of the most incredible technologies pointed toward a future with diverse AI and robotics driven applications. But without significant funding to support a hardware and software business and bridge to our long-term product roadmap, it is simply not feasible at this time. Despite our past successes, we pursued every financial avenue to fund our future product development and expand on our platforms. A significant financial deal at a late stage fell through with a strategic investor and we were not able to reach an agreement. We鈥檙e doing our best to take care of every single employee and their families, and our management team continues to explore all options available.

Anki was perhaps the most well-funded startups in the connected toys space. Over time, according to 附近上门 data, Anki had raised a total of at least聽 from investors such as , and , among others. Founded in 2010 by three Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute graduates, Anki was considered to be a 鈥渄arling鈥� in the field. Venture capitalist 聽in a 2013 blog post called Anki the “” he’d ever seen. 聽Andreessen once sat on the company鈥檚 board, from the time. A company spokesperson told 附近上门 News last September that its 2017 revenue 鈥渁pproached $100 [million]鈥� and revenue was expected to exceed that in 2018.

In 2016, I (Mary Ann) had the company for another publication and Sofman had told me: 聽“We started Anki with the goal of harnessing robotics and AI to bring to life consumer products with unprecedented level of intellect and interactive capabilities.鈥�

But its closure is not entirely a surprise.

In September 2018, we covered a likely financial shakeup at the company, surfaced in a pair of SEC filings. The first document detailed an equity transaction targeting $27.24 million in 鈥淪eries 1 Preferred鈥� stock. 附近上门 News had seen the Series 1 label before when we broke the story that Andreessen-backed tee shirt design marketplace Teespring re-capitalized, wiping out tens of millions of dollars worth of common stockholder equity in the process. The last round raised by Anki prior to the Series 1 deal was a Series D. Based on prior experience covering distressed Andreessen Horowitz portfolio companies, there鈥檚 strong reason to believe that Anki鈥檚 investors re-capitalized the company in 2018.

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Chariot on its company blog that it will end its U.K. service on Friday, January 25th, and will end service in the U.S. on Friday, February 1. All operations, including servicing its enterprise customers, will end in March.

Employees at the company were told today that their positions are terminated, according to an employee at the company who didn鈥檛 want to be named. The company is providing at least a portion of its employees with a severance package equal to 60 days worth of salary.

Founded in 2014, Chariot raised from and prior to 聽for $65 million. A couple months before the acquisition was formally announced Ford had featured by Chariot co-founder (and, at the time, CEO)聽 on its smart cities-focused 鈥淐ity Of Tomorrow Blog.鈥�

In the post, Vahabzadeh explained why he started the company. 鈥淚n 2014, I founded Chariot to solve my own transit challenges and those of other commuters鈥娾�斺�妏eople unable to board overpacked buses, or who can鈥檛 afford a $20 ride-share downtown at 8 a.m., or who live in a far-flung neighborhood like Outer Richmond,鈥� the native New Yorker wrote.

Vahabzadeh left Ford in February 2018, though he remained chair of Chariot’s board, according to at the time. Dan Grossman, then Ford’s recently-hired global VP of “microtransit,” took the reins at Chariot and has led the internal startup since聽Vahabzadeh’s departure.

Erin First, a hired spokesperson for the company, said by phone that continuing Chariot鈥檚 service, as it stands, 鈥渨as not sustainable for the company going forward.鈥� Some employees may be given the opportunity to work for another division in Ford, First said.

Urban mobility is a rapidly-changing market, and with change comes challenges. As more folks move away from car ownership, automakers and transportation service companies alike are vying for the next big business model. Privatized, shuttle-based transportation, a la Chariot, was one experiment in the new way to get around. Scooters, not shuttles, are the new new thing today, and Ford has already jumped into that market by acquiring Spin, a scooter service company. We鈥檒l see how that “mobility smorgasbord” experiment plays itself out.

鲍辫诲补迟别诲:听This post was updated with further information about co-founder Ali聽Vahabzadeh’s departure from Chariot.

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In response to inquiries from 附近上门 News, Seed co-founder said that “We’re not shutting the company down,” though he said Seed will be “shutting down our direct offering” and has notified its existing users of the impending change. “Going forward we are focused on software licensing and services for banks and non-banks,” Merritt told 附近上门 News.

In its email to users, the company said that “Seed is shutting down. We鈥檝e done everything we could to avoid this situation, but we must close all customer accounts over the coming weeks. Needless to say, we鈥檙e heartbroken, and especially regret the impact this will have on our customers, because our whole mission was to make things a little easier for each of you.”

The company continued, “While we ultimately weren鈥檛 able to create a sustainable alternative to the big banks, we鈥檙e glad that we tried.” The email said that all user accounts must be closed by the end of November, and that all accounts with remaining balances will be closed and the company will send a check to the account-holder with the remaining balance.

According , the company has raised $5.2 million in known venture funding from a pretty hefty set of investors. The company’s stakeholders include institutional investors at , , , , and . Individual and angel investors include partner , , founder , founder , and YC partners , , , and , among other investors .

Originally founded in 2014, the company went through Y Combinator’s accelerator program in the . Its largest venture round, led by General Catalyst, was announced in October 2015.

滨濒濒耻蝉迟谤补迟颈辞苍:听