Jibo, the Weston-based startup developing the “first family robot," has raised $25.3 million in Series A funding to turn the robot into a commercial reality.
Meanwhile, the company's founder and CEO, MIT Media Lab professor and roboticist Cynthia Breazeal, has moved into the role of chief scientist with Jibo. The new CEO at Jibo is Steve Chambers, formerly the president of the sales and marketing division at Burlington-based speech technology firm Nuance Communications. In a news release, Chambers said he is "dedicated to making Jibo a household name."
The new funding was led by RRE Ventures and will be used to help fulfill the company's $2.3 million Indiegogo campaign; hire new staff; and speed the development of advanced Jibo prototypes.
Also taking part were returning backers Fairhaven Capital and CRV, who were the seed investors in Jibo. Those firms contributed an initial round to Jibo that was disclosed last June, prior to the start of the successful IndieGogo campaign.
Other new investors included Flybridge Capital Partners, Two Sigma Ventures, Formation 8 and Samsung Ventures.
Joining the board at Jibo are Bruce Sachs of CRV, Matt Witheiler of Flybridge and Stuart Ellman of RRE.
I recently included Jibo among my 15 Boston Tech Companies to Watch in 2015, suggesting that this will be the year when we find out if the startup has in fact created a game-changing advancement in robotics for consumers.
Here's the video introducing Jibo, which has more than 8 million views on YouTube:
