A Bristol company that created an augmented-reality gaming robot that was sold by tech giant Apple has fallen into administration.
Reach Robotics, which is based in Stoke Gifford, developed a spider-shaped bot known as MekaMon that could fight virtual enemies on a phone.
Despite millions of pounds of investment over the past two years, the business appointed administrators KRE Corporate Recovery LLP on Monday, September 2.
Co-founder Silas Adekunle, a former UWE student, blamed the "challenging" consumer robotics industry for the closure of the company.
He said in a statement: “The consumer robotics sector is an inherently challenging space - especially for a start-up.
"Over the past six years, we have taken on this challenge with consistent passion and ingenuity.
"From the first trials of development to accelerators and funding rounds, we have fought to bring MekaMon to life and into the hands of the next generation of tech pioneers.
"Unfortunately, for Reach Robotics, in its current form at least, marks the end of that journey.”
Mr Adekunle set up Reach Robotics in 2013 with Chris Beck, of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, and engineer John Rees.
MekaMon was first released in 2017 after the business raised a whopping $7.1million of Series A funding.
Co-founder John Rees added: “I’m still taking stock of it all but the short version is that it is true what they say – that ‘hardware is hard’ and consumer hardware is even harder due to the reliance on the Christmas sales period."
Paul Ellison and David Taylor of KRE Corporate Recovery are overseeing the administration.
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