You Can Invest In The Silicon Valley Robot Mini-IPO

Author: Brian Karas, Published on Aug 16, 2016

Do you want own a part of the robot future?

Now, you can.

After gaining international fame with their robot runs over child debacle, Knightscope is seeking new funding through what they are calling a "mini IPO to test the waters".

We spoke with Knightscope CEO William Li to get more information about why the company wants to raise money from individual investors instead of the Silicon Valley VCs all around them.

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Vote: **** *** ******?

Comments (23)

Thumbnail img 0859

Scot MacTaggart

08/16/16 12:40pm

People seem to forget all the other things that companies have guards doing...like responding to first aid incidents, de-escalating in tough situations before they become violent...the tech is there but their understanding of the problem isn't mature enough yet.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Scot MacTaggart | 08/16/16 12:50pm

Scot, I agree.

To that end, I think the best tactical approach to security guard robots is make them very inexpensive and not positioned as a guard replacement. That $7 robot vs $25 guard comparison is not going to fool many people as it is easy to see what the tradeoffs are.

A robot at $6,000 a year (instead of the $60,000 Knightscope charges) would be a lot more viable. Even without gun detection and chemical analysis and whatever super sophisticated capabilities they hope to build in, just produce a basic camera / audio roving device and let it be a low cost complement to guards, something effectively between a PTZ and a human.

Thumbnail zayon 1673

Ari Erenthal

Chesapeake & Midlantic | 08/16/16 01:50pm

I'm refraining from voting as I'm afraid my objectivity has been compromised at the thought of TOTALLY REAL SECURITY ROBOTS YOU GUYS OMG.

Eddie Perry

08/16/16 02:06pm

security robots

until we get security robots like this I am afraid not one is going to get excited.... for good or bad reasons

John Honovich

IPVM | 08/16/16 03:18pm

Note: we are going to stop doing posts on security robots unless there is some major breakthrough.

The reads on these posts are very low, indicating most people simply do not care, which is probably a reasonable 'wisdom of crowds' metric given the current state of offerings.

Alex Wasilesku

IPVMU Certified | 08/16/16 03:42pm

This is awesome however Scot makes a great point. The actual approach to a possible violent situation between multiple people a robot will never be able to handle. Cant wait to see development in the future however.

Undisclosed #1

08/17/16 07:02pm

Necessary addition to the IPO deck:

Undisclosed Integrator #2

08/18/16 09:25pm

A fire exhausting robot which detects humans trapped inside burning buildings and gives oxygen automatically would make sense for me, nothing else.

Undisclosed #1

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2 | 08/18/16 10:24pm

...inside burning buildings and gives oxygen automatically would make sense for me, nothing else.

I assume you mean that the robot would extract breathable air from the smoky surroundings and provide to humans, thereby avoiding carrying O2 in a burning building as well as reducing the oxygen available to the fire.

Thumbnail hans kahler head shot

Hans Kahler

08/18/16 09:58pm

Can't someone just mount a wireless camera on one of those robot vacuums? Then they could replace the guards, and the janitorial staff too. That's a lot more savings!

Thumbnail profile pic

Ethan Ace

IPVM | In reply to Hans Kahler | 08/18/16 10:14pm

That's funny, but... The Dyson 360 Eye actually has a panoramic camera. I think there's a Samsung camera model, as well.

Undisclosed #1

In reply to Ethan Ace | 08/19/16 04:01am

Did my best to avoid posting this, but can no longer hold out. Sorry.

John Honovich

IPVM | 09/18/16 03:30pm

This Mini-IPO interest thing is a joke.

I saw this tweet.

Then I went to the site and registered my interest for $500,000, see screencap and my markups:

Before, it was at $37.9 million and after I indicated my interest, it was accepted and went to $38.4 million.

What is the point of this metric at all?

Undisclosed #1

In reply to John Honovich | 09/18/16 04:13pm

What is the point of this metric at all?

Its a measure of how interested people are in finding out how interested people are...

Perhaps mrroboto will be getting cameras from mrmoboto, aka mobotix, aka koinica minolta?

Michael Miller

09/26/16 01:20pm

They can detect weapons now?

Thumbnail brk1

Brian Karas

IPVM | In reply to Michael Miller | 09/26/16 01:35pm

I saw that pic this morning as well.

No, they cannot detect weapons, unless something has recently changed, but this is an area they want to expand to with the "mini IPO" money (mentioned in the article above).

Detecting visible weapons is already very challenging, detecting invisible ones seems like a monumental task.

Undisclosed #1

In reply to Brian Karas | 09/26/16 02:38pm

What was the context that this picture was shown in?

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed #1 | 09/27/16 10:51pm

The context of the picture was for investment solicitation:

Which, needless to say, makes it even more reckless.

Undisclosed #1

In reply to John Honovich | 10/30/16 09:04am

And yet, perhaps not that far-fetched.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed #1 | 10/30/16 11:51am

In Knightscope's pitch deck, they are claiming to be developing their own gun detection analytics:

The company you cite has raised $19 million or more in VC funding just for such gun detection development.

Thumbnail brk1

Brian Karas

IPVM | 12/05/16 06:13pm

Just received the following email from Knightscope, looks like they are going through with this:

Thumbnail brk1

Brian Karas

IPVM | 01/10/17 08:07pm

UPDATE:

You are now able to formally invest in Knightscope.

They are doing this as a Tier 1, Regulation A+ offering. Knightscope is looking to raise $20M, the maximum allowable under Tier 1. A Tier 2 offering would allow them to raise up to $50M, but would also require the company to provide audited financials and event updates.

If you "expressed interest" in the early round, as I did, then you have probably also received multiple emails from Knightscope about the mini IPO going live. I have over 2 dozen emails from Knightscope/Seedinvest encouraging me to "take a stand against crime, violence, and terrorism" by investing.

Undisclosed #1

01/10/17 10:11pm

What's the ante?

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