Reach Robotics Closes Shop

Reach Robotics, a startup focused on AR battle bots, officially shut down Tuesday. “The consumer robotics sector is an inherently challenging space,” Co-founder Silas Adekunle wrote. Co-founder John Rees cited an oft-heard tech principle: Hardware is hard.

What Reach had built: MekaMon, a phone-controlled, spider-like robot. The gaming robot could battle other MekaMons or digital robots via an AR mobile app, and served as an educational STEM tool.

Reach isn’t the first consumer robotics company to shut down this year:

• Anki, creator of toy robots and self-driving radio-controlled cars, had raised over $200 million but still shut down in April.
• Earlier that month, a Japanese startup behind a $16,000 laundry-folding robot...folded.

Jibo was another high profile casualty. The social robot startup raised more than $70 million and was acquired last year. Shortly after, Jibo said it would pull support for its eponymous robot.

Bright spot: Though Reach Robotics’s product and business model didn’t shake out, there’s ample demand for its expertise. Take Anki. Sonos, Waymo, and Apple have all scooped up former employees and executives this summer.