KDDI Open Innovation Fund invests in Jibo, Inc., the company behind Jibo - the Social Robot for the home

KDDI Open Innovation Fund has invested in U.S.-based Jibo, Inc., the company behind Jibo -- the Social Robot for the home.

Jibo is an intelligent social robot who can sense and respond to consumers in the home environment, learning as he engages and providing help, fun and companionship to everyone in the family. Jibo was conceived by founder Cynthia Breazeal, Associate Professor at MIT and leader of the Personal Robots Group of the MIT Media Lab. KDDI has recognized Jibo, Inc. as a promising startup company in the robotics market and has formed a capital alliance with the company.

Global Brain, as a general partner of KDDI Open Innovation Fund, is responsible for sourcing, evaluating and screening prospective startup companies. Global Brain also provides multiple extensive assistance for the invested companies to enable their rapid growth.

The invested companies will be able to leverage various assets of KDDI, such as KDDI’s broad customer base, business practices and reliable communication platform, together with Global Brain’s acceleration programs,to execute effective growth strategies.

■ Jibo Jibo is an intelligent family-oriented robot provided by Jibo, Inc. Jibo's functions, or "skills", are installed in the same way as apps to achieve communication with people. Jibo will feature capabilities unlike any other social robot platform, from voice-activated, full motion photo-taking, to no-hands videoconferencing, to interactive and personalized storytelling, to directed, animated messages and reminders to home monitoring and more. Jibo's personality and expressiveness relies on advanced technologicalinnovations spanning from face and voice detention, emotion detection,touch input, 360-degree motion, full persona, voice recognition and custom voice synthesis and LED expressive lighting. Developers can freely develop Jibo's skills through the Jibo SDK to further expand, and customize, Jibo's functions.

About Jibo, Inc.

Company name

Jibo, Inc.

Location

Boston MA

CEO

Steve Chambers - CEO / Executive Chairman

Founded

2012

Business content

Developers of Jibo, family-oriented robot

URL

http://www.jibo.com/

■ About KDDI Open Innovation Fund KDDI Open Innovation Fund is a corporate venture fund operated by KDDI and Global Brain Corporation that invests in domestic and international promising venture companies. It strongly supports the growth of invested companies by linking them to KDDI's vast company network, marketing skills,and services such as au Smart Pass. It also has a base in San Francisco, United states where considers investments in startup companies that have the latest technology and innovative business models. When invested companies consider expanding to Japan, it offers a wide range of support, including business development, marketing, and localization.

See the following official homepage for information about the KDDI Open Innovation Fund.

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