US-based personal robot maker Jibo raised an $11m extension to its series A round on Wednesday from an investment consortium consisting of five corporates.
The funding came from computer manufacturer Acer, telecommunications companies KDDI and LG Uplus, video surveillance technology provider NetPosa and marketing firm Dentsu, which invested through Dentsu Ventures, the $40m corporate venturing unit it established in April this year.
Jibo secured $25.3m in the January 2015 first close of the round, which was led by RRE Ventures and backed by electronics producer Samsung’s Samsung Ventures unit, CRV, Flybridge Capital Partners, Fairhaven Capital Partners, Two Sigma, Formation 8, Osage Venture Partners and unnamed angel investors.
CRV, Fairhaven and Osage previously supplied an undisclosed amount of seed funding for Jibo in June 2014.
The company has also secured a combined $4m in crowdfunding campaigns, $3.7m of which came from a campaign on Indiegogo that closed in June this year.
Founded in 2012, Jibo has created a home robot that is able to recognise people’s faces, and which can act as a personal assistant, play with children and take photographs. It has sold 6,500 units through its crowdfunding campaigns, with pre-orders costing $749 each.
Jibo will use the funding to support an expansion into more geographies, with its list of backers enabling it to focus particularly on the Asia Pacific region.
– Image courtesy of Jibo