Seven Dreamers Laboratories

What did it do?

Seven Dreamers Laboratories was a Tokyo-based technology company best known for Laundroid, its laundry-folding robot. Using image recognition and robotic arms to identify and fold garments, the device was eventually meant to combine washing, drying and folding in a single cabinet. The company was also developing an in-nose medical device to make breathing easier during sleep.

Why did it shut down?

Laundroid was first unveiled at the CEATEC trade show in Tokyo in 2015, together with Panasonic and Daiwa House. The company raised a $60 million Series B in November 2016 and in March 2017 began taking pre-orders for a first, folding-only version. At around $16,000 and the size of a fridge, the product was a tough proposition for households; according to Engadget, at a 2018 demonstration it struggled to fold simple T-shirts that had not been prepared in advance. Despite roughly 10 billion yen in total investment, development costs outran the capital. On 23 April 2019 the company filed for bankruptcy at the Tokyo District Court, leaving debts of about 2.25 billion yen to 200 creditors.

The story

Folding laundry is known as one of the most tedious household chores. Tokyo-based Seven Dreamers Laboratories set out to hand the job over to a robot. The company's device, Laundroid, was first exhibited at the CEATEC trade show in Tokyo in 2015, together with Panasonic and Daiwa House. The fridge-sized machine used image recognition and robotic arms to identify the clothes placed inside it, folding and sorting them one by one. The long-term plan was to combine washing, drying and folding in a single cabinet.

Investor interest was strong. In November 2016 a $60 million Series B arrived, led by Panasonic, Daiwa House and SBI Investment; in total the company raised about 10 billion yen, or around $89 million. Pre-orders for the first, folding-only version opened in March 2017. Seven Dreamers won the Japan heat of the Startup World Cup in 2018 and for years was a regular at CES in Las Vegas.

Yet the product could not do what it promised. A price of around $16,000 was far too high for households. At a 2018 demonstration the machine struggled to fold simple T-shirts taken from a basket that had not been carefully prepared in advance. Recognising the type of a garment and folding it correctly pushed the super intelligence and robotics of the day to their limits. Development costs ate through the money raised across three funding rounds.

On 23 April 2019 the company filed for bankruptcy at the Tokyo District Court, leaving debts of about 2.25 billion yen to 200 creditors. Company president Shinichi Sakane said that as cash-flow problems worsened, the future of the business could no longer be seen. Laundroid's story is a reminder that an impressive trade-show demonstration is not the same thing as a product that works at home every day.

Lessons for founders

• In hardware, strip the first version down to doing one job reliably; the dream of a cabinet that both washed and folded used up the capital before folding alone was even finished.
• Big corporate partners and trade-show buzz are not proof of technical maturity; taking pre-orders for a robot that has not been tested in real homes magnifies the risk.
• Measure in advance the market for a household appliance whose price approaches that of a car; the number of homes that can afford a $16,000 folding machine is limited.

Sources

1. Laundroid (Wikipedia)
2. Laundroid company folds before its giant robot does (Engadget, 2019-04-23)
3. Consumer robots still struggle as Laundroid maker Seven Dreamers files for bankruptcy (The Robot Report, 2019-04-24)
4. The Japanese laundry-folding robot is dead - but the dream lives on (The Star, 2019-05-04)

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