Being the small 6-person startup company that we are, we had many worries before CES 2013, where technology companies go to show off their latest & greatest. It's like a popularity contest and, as a small company with even smaller budget for trade-show booths, we were severely under-dressed. Thoughts that crossed our minds:
Double took a trip through Hardware Alley at Disrupt. Watch the video below to see Double's interview with TechCrunch's Mike Butcher!
New York, NY – September 21, 2012. Grishin Robotics (http://grishinrobotics.com) announcing today its $250,000 investment into Double Robotics (http://www.doublerobotics.com). Parties do not disclose other terms of the deal.
Double Robotics, which has graduated recently from Y Combinator (http://ycombinator.com), builds telepresence robots, characterized by ground-breaking price ($2,499, also it can be pre-ordered now just for $1,999), great design, light weight and high level of simplicity – it works right “out of box” and uses iPad as a platform.
Double Robotics already has $1.2 million (600 units) in pre-orders (just in one month since the launch), from 44 countries around the world. Customers include 24 universities, as well as 17 Fortune 500 companies. Since the first production run of Double has already sold out, the investment from Grishin Robotics will be spent primarily on scaling manufacturing, as well as hiring & further product development. New pre-orders will be delivered in early 2013. Engineers interested in career in Double Robotics can get in touch with the company by the e-mail jobs@doublerobotics.com.
According to ABI research data, worldwide telepresence market is going to reach $13.1 billion by the end of 2016. Current customers of Double Robotics are using the product for teleconferencing, security surveillance, real estate & museum tours, healthcare, presentation purposes and many others. Telepresence is considered by industry experts as one of the most promising and will drive the personal robotics market growth into the mainstream.
“Double Robotics’ investment perfectly aligns to our strategy”, said Dmitry Grishin, Founder of Grishin Robotics. “It is a very consumer-oriented product with potential to fit a very wide range of applications and has already proven a strong consumer demand. It’s also important that the price of the product makes it truly accessible to the wide audience. In addition, the team has a very good approach to design and is keen to build very user-friendly products - things which should not be underestimated while developing next-generation personal robotics companies. Double Robotics is very well positioned to leverage the unique potential of the very prominent telepresence robotics market segment and we strongly believe in both company’s team and product.”
”We are thrilled to have Grishin Robotics and Dmitry Grishin, in particular, as our largest investor to date,” said David Cann, Co-founder of Double Robotics. “We read about the new investment firm and Dmitry’s experience in the field of robotics in June 2012 when the fund was announced. The timing was perfect, as we were just beginning the Y Combinator program with our prototype robot. After our public
launch in August, we met with Grishin Robotics and were immediately impressed with their mission and deep knowledge of the robotics industry’s past mistakes and potential future. We look forward to working with Grishin Robotics in the years to come as we build our business.”
About Grishin Robotics
Grishin Robotics is a global investment company with a mission of advancing innovation in robotics for the mass consumer market. Grishin Robotics is focused on investing in personal robotics technologies in areas such as home maintenance, healthcare, entertainment and transportation. The firm is led by Dmitry Grishin, co- founder of Mail.ru Group, and is based in New York City. For more information, or to submit your company for investment consideration, visit http://www.grishinrobotics.com.
About Double Robotics
Double Robotics is a startup based in California that is creating the first professional grade mass market telepresence robot. The company’s first product is called Double and has garnered tremendous interest from businesses and consumers around the world. The company was founded by David Cann and Marc DeVidts and completed the Y Combinator program in Summer 2012. For more information, visit http://www.doublerobotics.com.
David got to talk about Double on NBC's Press:Here with Scott McGrew. Watch the interview here!
There are some nice things being said about Double in the media. Here are a few blurbs from different articles.
"For the frequent traveller, it could be the perfect way to attend those urgent meetings while staying at home." - Mail Online UK
"…incredibly creative iPad stand that works as a robotic body double for you." - TechCrunch
"…brings telepresence to the masses" - Engadget
"It’s as if Apple designed the robot itself." - NYTimes
"Welcome to the future." - Uncrate
"The Double robot, on the other hand, brings the ease and simplicity synonymous with Apple products…" - redOrbit
"Double Robotics may have a hit on its hands…" - TUAW
"Simple to use" - Yahoo! News
"Double is different." - TIME
"We’ve seen a lot of cool accessories for the iPad over the years, but this one might just take the cake." - iDownloadBlog
"It's a looker, too, with a futuristic, minimalist design…" - IEEE Spectrum
"How cool would it be to roam Uffizi…" - Core77
"Double Robotics has created an awesome new style of telepresence robot…" - Geeky Gadgets
"…it’s sleek and beautiful and intelligent. In a word, sexy." - VentureBeat
"Ever wanted to go to the Louvre, but couldn’t afford it? Double Robotics has a device that one day might get you a little bit closer." - ZAGGBlog
"…an excellent entry into the telepresence robot space.." - Pilot Presence
"Double is exceptionally cool…" - TicaToca
"…a cutting edge user-robot experience…" - Toms Hardware
"…inexpensive for the market…" - Technabob
"…a unique robot…" - funkyspacemonkey
"I’m happy to say robots are walking among us, specifically, Double Robotics’ robots." - Dice
"the 'affordable' iPad robot" - CNET Australia
Well, you get the idea. (:
Double was featured on Today in LA on NBC4 News with host Mekahlo Medina. It was an exciting experience for Double to travel to Los Angeles (accompanied by David!) to be on TV.
Everyone at the studio had a great time with Double on set. Here is Mekahlo using Double to introduce Double!
Double even got the chance to do the weather on the show as you can see here:
Here's an in depth interview with David on how Double works.
We hope you enjoyed the interviews and look forward to sharing more with you all as they come our way!
Doubles actually exist outside of our offices! One of them lives at OpenTok, our totally awesome streaming video partner.
We walked in to OpenTok HQ unannounced today around lunch time to perform some firmware updates and we were surprised to see a Double sitting at the lunch table with the rest of the crew! It also appears maybe they had a little too much fun playing dress-up. :)
Check out what they tweeted this afternoon:
Meet J9, TokBox's very own
— TokBox (@tokbox) August 16, 2012#Shelbot courtesy@doublerobotics cc/@bigbang_cbs#BigBangTheory#OpenTok ow.ly/i/Ra9o
Hi everyone! Welcome to our new blog page, where we will be keeping you posted with important Double news and info.
We wanted to update you on a couple things since we launched. First off, we want to thank you all for your enthusiasm and support for Double, especially to those of you who pre-ordered. Because of the overwhelming response, we've already had to expand our first production run to include more robots than planned, which is great! However, in good conscience, we cannot continue to offer a December ship date for units placed from here forward.
New orders placed (as of August 16th) will now be shipping in early 2013.
For those of you who have placed your order already, nothing has changed. Your order is still set to ship out in December.
-marc