Ubooly: plush toy with iphone instead of brain

The creators of the Ubooly toy, which uses the iPhone or iPod touch to interact with the owner, today announced they have received initial funding of $ 1.5 million from various investors, including SoftTech, 500 Startups, David Cohen, etc. Prior to this, the creators of the toy have collected the necessary tools for the initial production using the Kickstarter campaign. The money received from investors will help to endow the children's toy with the ability to interact better with people.

Ubooly, which went on sale last week, was created by a married couple from Colorado, Carly Gloug and Isaac Squires, who are the founders of the design agency Warb. They used Kickstarter to prove that their idea has prospects and that the toy, which uses Apple gadgets for interactive games and speech recognition, will be popular with buyers. The company achieved its target of $ 25,000, but in addition, attention to the project helped attract not only initial toy orders, but also additional venture capital of $ 335,000. The startup also participated in the third season of the web series The Founders.

The Ubooly team already uses the funds received to develop updates for voice recognition technology so that the toy can better interact with the children and the implementation of the new game mode for the Ubooly application, which does not require the toy itself to communicate with the character. Additional screenwriters have joined the company to help implement their plans in accordance with a tight schedule, according to which new content should be released every two weeks.
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One of the most obvious problems Ubooly is that the toy was designed for iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S (and the fourth generation of iPod touch). This means that the fifth-generation additional vertical space of the iPhone 5 and iPod touch will not work with it. But the founder, Carly Glog, said that at the moment this is an advantage.

“I think the release of the iPhone 5 will have a great impact on the success of Ubooly,” she said. "People often put off their old iPhones after buying new ones, and, as they themselves tell us, Ubooly gives them the opportunity to start using their devices of previous generations again."

In the future, the Ubooly team will work on implementing support for the latest version of iOS and Android devices. But while Glog uses the opportunity that appeared due to the presence of a large number of not the newest devices - after buying new models of phones, parents often give the old devices to their children. And these devices need accessories.

There are other companies doing the same thing as Ubooly. For example, Totoya Creatures and Griffin's Woogie. But the Ubooly plan is more ambitious. A startup wants to build around its toys a whole thriving ecosystem with applications that not only learn and grow with children, but have their own uses. For example, we are working on a GPS application that can work as a virtual guide for children on holidays.

The initial wave of interest helped to find the money that will further develop and advertise the product. But the key part of the equation in this case is the content. It is he who makes Ubooly so special. And the success of a startup will depend on its quality and quantity.

via TechCrunch