DEPLOYDatabase

Company

Jibo

Jibo was an American social robotics company founded in 2012 by MIT professor Cynthia Breazeal, developing Jibo, the world's first social robot for the home.

Founded
2012
HQ
Boston, MA, USA
Status
defunct (servers shut down March 2019; IP acquired by NTT Disruption)

The verified answer

As of Aug 2026, DEPLOY verifies Jibo: 1 model. 1 source back the record.

CategoryCompanion robots

Overview

Jibo was an American social robotics company founded in 2012 by MIT professor Cynthia Breazeal, developing Jibo, the world's first social robot for the home. The company raised approximately $73M in venture funding and $2.3M on Indiegogo, shipped its first units in late 2017 at $899, and was named one of Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2017.

After burning through its funding amid delays, competition from Amazon Echo and Google Home, and weaker-than-expected sales, Jibo laid off most staff in 2018 and shut down servers in March 2019.

Verified record

Verified deployments
None on file
Active incidents
None on file

Key facts

CEO

Steve Chambers (former President of Nuance Communications)

Founder

Cynthia Breazeal (MIT Media Lab professor)

Crowdfunding

$2.3M raised on Indiegogo (2014)

Units shipped

Approximately 3,000 to Indiegogo backers

Retail price

$899

Recognition

Time Magazine Best Inventions of 2017

Status

Defunct, servers shut down March 2019

Data & sources

News coverage

1

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Founders (1)

See all founders across the registry →

Former / Previously (2)

Safety record

No incidents on record for Jibo.

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →

Recent coverage

Jibo in third-party press

Peer companies