The Warsaw-based VC firm Arkley VC has expanded its portfolio with a startup from Austria – Robo Wunderkind. The investor led the recent €446K investment round which also involved business angel Juergen Habichler and Austrian federal promotional bank AWS.
With the new investment Robo Wunderkind will be able to set up their worldwide distribution channels and increase their marketing efforts as well as launch their new Robo Play App. Robo Wunderkind teaches robotics and coding to children from the age of five. The robot consists of different building blocks. It is accompanied by the app. Kids can learn the logic behind coding by “teaching” their robot to do different tricks.
Different blocks, sensors, cameras, motion detectors, and all sorts of other modules can be added to the robot so it can grow alongside with the child. Whenever kids are tired from learning, they can simply build cool looking robots as Robo’s modules that are compatible with Lego bricks. The concept for Robo Wunderkind was born when Rustem Akishbekov, CEO and Robo Wunderkind co-founder, was studying at the Vienna University of Technology, writes news site Robohub. He was building robots on the open-source Arduino platform and he realized how inaccessible robotics and coding could be to the average non-techie. This is why he set out to create a programmable robot, which would be as much fun and as simple as playing with Lego.
“We wanted to create the interface that will allow even a 5 year old kid to control our robotics kit. Now we want to create a platform that will allow us to expand our target audience and reach older users,” explains Rustem. “Everyone will be able to control their IoT devices with the help of a very intuitive and customizable app. The new app will open the world of IoT devices to everyone. Just like our robots prepare children for the digital world of tomorrow.”
The company surpassed their €62 000 pledge for their Kickstarter campaign and raised over €223 000 – 350% over their original goal. Production has just started and pre-orders are available for those who missed Kickstarter campaign. The basic kit costs €177 and you get 9 cubes. If you want 15 cubes, it costs €311. Finally, the big kit comes with 25 cubes for €625 — this kit includes a digital camera and a weather sensor.
