Pre-seed funds for Rosie the Robot

Augmented Reality has a massive potential as a stimulating and engaging tool for kids' education. Children’s brains are still in a formative phase and it is beneficial to provide multiple stimuli during play. Using AR, RosieReality can maximise that impact.

The startup from ETH Zurich is developing Rosie, a friendly AR that roamed the universe. Unfortunately, one day Rosie got too close to earth, crash-landed and lost all of her memory.  Using RosieReality, kids from the age of eight discover Rosie with whom they interact and teach all about life on earth.

RosieReality has now raised a pre-seed round with Shasta Ventures, Redalpine, Atomico, Akatsuki, and Anorak. The funds will be used for further developments as it continues to spark scientific curiosity among kids using AR games.

“As a market, we are still early in AR. Currently, at RosieReality we are investing a lot in understanding how far we can push an AR experience before losing the user. One of the defining factors is cognitive (over)load. As we are teaching new AR interaction patterns and rules while catering to a younger audience we have to take incremental steps in establishing new behavioural patterns. From the start, users need to get into the appropriate state of mind. Our job is to get them there so they can enjoy the experience,” said Sélim Benayat, CEO and Co-Founder of RosieReality.

Currently, Rosie is only available in Switzerland or via private beta access. The company is continuously expanding its team and operations and soon will push the product across the sea to the US. In addition, by having Akatsuki and Atomico as early team members, RosieReality is well positioned to tackle the Asian market in the near future.

Photo: Sélim Benayat (L) and Peter Spence (R)

(Press release/ran)