US-based personal robot maker Jibo has secured a $16m extension for its series A round from a consortium including display manufacturer Ningbo GQY, boosting the round’s total to $52.3m, Forbes has reported.
Venture capital firm Fenox Venture Capital, reported last month to have invested an undisclosed sum, backed the series A extension alongside a range of existing, unnamed shareholders. The funding was raised at a $128m valuation, according to research firm PitchBook.
The round’s first $25.3m tranche was led by VC firm RRE Ventures in January this year and included electronics producer Samsung’s investment subsidiary, Samsung Ventures, CRV, Flybridge Capital Partners, Fairhaven Capital Partners, Two Sigma, Formation 8, Osage Venture Partners and undisclosed angel investors.
Jibo extended the round with $11m from computer manufacturer Acer, telecommunications firms KDDI and LG Uplus, video surveillance technology developer NetPosa and marketing firm Dentsu, which invested through its Dentsu Ventures unit, in August.
Founded in 2012, Jibo has developed a home robot that is able to recognise users’ faces, and which can be integrated with third-party services such as videoconferencing tool Skype. The latest funding will support a localisation of the robot so it can interact in Chinese and Japanese.
Jibo has not yet shipped any units, but has pre-sold some 6,500 robots as part of crowdfunding campaigns that brought in a total of $4m. It expects to fulfil the orders in mid-2016.
CRV, Fairhaven and Osage previously provided an undisclosed amount of seed capital for Jibo in June 2014.