American programming robot debuts in China and receives $20 million in Series B financing

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The picture shows the programmingrobot“Dutch”[保存到相册]

On July 28, the American education company Fantastic Workshop brought two programming Robots, Dachi and Dada, to the Innovation Workshop, announcing its entry into the Chinese market. At the same time, it announced that it has received US$20 million in Series B financing. This round of financing was led by China Economic Cooperation Group and Innovation Works, and followed by TCL and several US investment institutions.

It is reported that,

Fantasy Workshop is an innovative education company established in Silicon Valley, USA. It provides hardware, APP and courses for programming robots for children aged 5-12. The core staff of the company are from Google, Apple, and Amazon River Frog Design Company.

In 2013, Fantastic Workshop launched the children’s programming products Daqi and Dada. Daqi is equipped with infrared, speed, gravity and other sensors, and has several interactive functions – it can flexibly realize racing, dancing, singing, and even voice recognition, Conversation and interaction with children. Through 4 graphical APPs (Path, Xylo, Blockly and Wonder), children can freely manipulate the robot to complete the imagined complex actions, such as planning the travel route, responding to sounds or obstacles, inspiring imagination and creativity.

At present, the localization of this intelligent robot is in progress, and two of the four Chinese-language apps, Blockly and Wonder, will be the first to be launched in the domestic IOS and Android App markets in mid-September.

Vikas Gupta, founder and CEO of Fantasy Workshop, introduced that the robots Dachi and Dada have been welcomed by tens of thousands of technology educators around the world and put into teaching use. They were recommended by US President Obama, and were recommended by Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates recommends the best way to learn computer science for kids. The two robots have now entered 37 countries, with sales exceeding $3.5 million. The sales channels in China will be mainly commercial markets, schools, and early childhood education centers.

Vikas Gupta insists that his company is defined as an education company, not a toy company. He is committed to technology that enables children to “play” to inspire creativity and imagination.

Kai-Fu Lee, Chairman and CEO of Innovation Workshop, said, “It is very rare to grow from an idea into a company with global influence in a short period of time. It shows that their products are very good. We are willing to help the educational platform of Fantasy Workshop enter China.”

Innovation Workshop has made great efforts in the field of artificial intelligence. According to Kai-Fu Lee’s public speech, so far, nearly 100 million US dollars have been invested in innovation workshops in this field, which is close to 25 companies.