Jibo's crowdfunded promise outlasted the company that made it

The design

MIT researcher Cynthia Breazeal's company, Jibo Inc., raised money for a home social robot on Indiegogo, a campaign the page states 'started on Jul 16' 2014, pitched with the line 'Friendly, helpful and intelligent. From social robotics pioneer Dr. Cynthia Breazeal.' Against a stated goal of $100,000, it raised $1,859,459 from 4,385 funders, with the base 'JIBO Home Edition' priced at $499 and a 'Targeted 2015' ship date the page itself qualifies: 'Actual ship dates may vary.' The robot did not ship on that timeline; consumer units reached backers roughly two years past the original target.

What the evidence says

What happened to the company afterward is recorded in the successor operator's own account. An FAQ published on jibo.com, retrieved here in a 2020 archived snapshot, states 'Jibo Inc. was the company that initially created jibo, and then when they closed the business jibo was transferred to SQN Venture Partners,' and that 'NTT Disruption reached an agreement with SQN Venture Partners to acquire ownership of jibo's patents, trademark, digital assets, and inventory,' with NTT Disruption a company NTT 'launched' in 2019. The FAQ states, as of that snapshot, 'for previous jibo users, there will be no changes for the time being, and their existing jibo will continue working as it is,' a claim from the new owner that leaves open how long that continuity lasted.

What it asks of people

The crowdfunding structure asked backers for money years ahead of delivery, on the strength of a promise from a named academic founder rather than a finished product; the FAQ's framing of continued service 'for the time being' asks existing owners to accept an indefinite, revisable commitment from a company that did not make their device and has reoriented it toward business customers in healthcare and education.

Privacy and safeguards

Neither source reviewed here states a data retention or deletion policy for the original robot's cloud-connected features under either owner. The FAQ addresses continuity of function, not data handling, and the Indiegogo campaign predates any such disclosure. That gap is itself a finding: a change of ownership over a networked home device happened, by the new owner's own account, without saying anything about what became of the data the device had already collected.

• What happens to a networked device's data and functionality when the company that made it closes, and who decides?
• Does a crowdfunding campaign's ship-date estimate carry any obligation, or is it explicitly qualified as changeable?
• When a new owner says an old device will 'continue working... for the time being,' what does that phrase actually commit them to?

Jibo's story, as told across its founder's crowdfunding pitch and its eventual owner's own FAQ, is less about robotics and more about what a networked companion product depends on after purchase: a company's continued existence, and that company's continued willingness to run the servers a small piece of hardware needs. Neither of those things was promised in the original pitch, and neither is guaranteed by the phrase 'for the time being.'