Joining forces: Social robotics company Furhat acquires robotics company Misty

Misty went on a hellish journey. After raising $11.5 million from Foundry and Venrock and then crowdfunding for its personal robot, the company faced a series of challenges. Today, Swedish social robotics company Furhat Robotics offered the troubled startup a modest landing spot.

The Swedish company called it an all-cash deal. Furhat, while tight-lipped about the financial details of the deal, told TechCrunch that the purpose of the acquisition was to give Furhat an edge in hardware and enable it to leverage its social bot software on the new platform.

The oddly named Furhat Robotics plans to keep Misty Robotics' headquarters in Colorado as a base for its U.S. operations, as well as eight of the company's most senior staff members to find ways to integrate the two technologies.

"We're going to keep the senior team; the head of operations, engineering, business development, and senior software developers will join us," said Samer Al Moubayed, CEO and co-founder of Furhat Robotics, "Misty has done a great job of building a very scalable production operation and building the product by a well-known partner in China." ”

Both companies said they operate under a "unified vision" and said Furhat Robotics will continue to support the Misty Robotics brand, in addition to assisting in developing and expanding the product range and integrating the capabilities of Furhat and Misty to enhance future social robots.

"Acquisitions in the social robotics space are very rare. In fact, this may be the first time this has happened in history. This is just a very early stage of the industry," Al Moubayed said, "and the company spun off from Spiro." What makes this robot so unique is that it may look like a toy, but it's very likable and very approachable. However, it is very advanced. Misty Robotics' success lies in the fact that they put the world's best technology in a very flattering robot. ”

The Furhat team suggests that their product — a robot that projects animated faces in the rear — is ideal for social robots that require adult personalities, such as airports, train stations or medical applications. Misty adds something more scalable, with its forearms and facial expressions being more expressive. Still, the Furhat team notes that while the two robots look very different, they also have a lot in common.

Discussing how the acquisition came about, Al Moubayed put it this way: "Misty is the missing piece for us. It helps us enter a larger market, such as focusing on education. While the technology is very similar, Misty is great in hardware and we're very powerful in software. Instead of building a new robot for education, Furhat decided to start looking for another solution. ”

Ian Bernstein, founder and head of product at Misty Robotics, said: "Furhat Robotics is a true pioneer in its field. We are joining forces to bring the future of robotics into the present, and our combination of specialties means we will see more incredible real-life applications of this amazing technology in the near future. Social robots have played an important role in our lives, and by applying our combined expertise to solve real-world problems, the sky is truly limitless. "