You could soon be delegating your weekly schedule to an MIT-made social robot over your morning cup of coffee, thanks to the newly-funded Cambridge startup Jibo.
The startup, founded by the MIT Media Lab’s Cynthia Breazeal, has raised a “large seed round” in the single-million digits from Charles River Ventures’ partner Bruce Sachs, along with Osage University Partners and Fairhaven Capital, reports BetaBoston.
According to the company’s website, Jibo is building the “the world’s first family robot.” But what does that really mean? The site doesn’t give much in the way of explanation, but it's rumored that the robot could be used to provide some sort of health and geriatric care, or help coordinate family schedules. Social robots can carry out seemingly natural conversations, as well as react to changes in a person’s tone of voice and facial expression.
Jibo banked some initial funding in January, and has been steadily building out its teams in both Weston, Mass. and San Francisco since, snagging employees from the likes of iRobot and Netflix. According to LinkedIn, Jerilyn Asher is a fellow co-founder of Jibo. VP of engineering and former Netflix employee Andy Atkins is based out of California. Chief Robot Architect Robert Pack hails from iRobot. The company has also brought on a pair of engineers that come from the gaming industry: Chief Software Architect Rich Sadowsky of Mass.-based Turbine, and software engineer Jonathan Ross, formerly of Zynga.
The company has recently prepped its social media outlets, suggesting an upcoming launch or reveal.
Image via Jibo
