Reach Robotics
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Reach Robotics built MekaMon, a spider-like, four-legged gaming robot controlled from a smartphone. The robot moved with lifelike motion around a real room while players battled virtual enemies through an augmented-reality app, and it doubled as a STEM education tool. Founded in Bristol, UK in 2013 by Silas Adekunle, the company sold MekaMon through the Apple Store after raising a $7.5 million Series A in 2017.
02 / Reach Robotics FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Reach Robotics was crushed by the economics of consumer robotics and a cash crunch. Co-founder John Rees summed it up as hardware being hard: building and supporting physical robots was far more capital-intensive than the company's funding could sustain. By mid-2019 the startup faced creditor pressure, filed notice of its intention to appoint an administrator, and cut staff, before co-founder Silas Adekunle announced the shutdown on September 3, 2019.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Operations ended
Reach Robotics ended operations.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Found a Bristol robotics startup and build MekaMon, a gaming robot with augmented-reality battles.
- 02
Raise a $7.5 million Series A and sell MekaMon through the Apple Store.
- 03
Face creditor pressure and file notice of intent to appoint an administrator amid a cash crunch.
- 04
Announce closure on September 3, 2019, ending the consumer robotics business.