As a reader of this blog you’ve probably seen this already, but can’t not blog this. My startup just announced we got $1.4M (about €1.1M) in seed funding. This is great – we can focus on the product for a while now. :)
Our investors are great, too. LifeLine is superbly awesome, and I’m eagerly waiting for cunning planning meetings with Nikolaj from SunStone. Daniel James is a dear old friend I’m superbly grateful for him being on board. Cedric’s knowledge of anime and manga will be incredibly useful in the future. Matthew knows everything about mobile we could ever wish to know.
So, if you haven’t made a Makie yet, go to Makie.me right now. :)
You can read about this in TechCrunch and GigaOM.
MakieLab Announces Alpha Launch of MAKIES, and $1.4M Seed Investment
3D-printed MAKIES action dolls making their way to early customers
London and Helsinki, June 7, 2012.
Smart toys company MakieLab announces the open alpha launch of MAKIES, the first ever user-designed, 3D-printed action doll. On http://makie.me customers are designing and sharing digital avatars that are brought to life via 3D-printshops across London.
“We’ve seen amazing levels of creativity from our customers since letting the first few in during open alpha just a few weeks ago”, says Alice Taylor, founder and CEO of MakieLab. “We’re now hard at work to enable further customization of MAKIES, more creativity, and to expand to include digital and physical gaming.”
Together with the launch, MakieLab announce their seed round investment of $1.4 million. The round is led by early-stage investors Lifeline Ventures and Sunstone Capital and is joined by Anime and gaming industry veterans Matthew Wiggins, Daniel James and Cedric Littardi of superangel-fund Ynnis Ventures.
“The toys industry is ripe for disruption and 3D printing opens up for a powerful blend of digital and physical. We’re thrilled to support Alice, Jo, Sulka, Luke and team in London and Helsinki in their venture to define a new toys company,” says Petteri Koponen, Partner at Lifeline Ventures.
“MAKIES are great proof of how 3D printing will impact our everyday life in so many subtle ways. My daughter is already saving her pocket money for a MAKIE and for her and her peers this physical customization will be the norm,” adds Nikolaj Nyholm, Partner at Sunstone Capital.
MakieLab joins the ranks of culturally influential companies in the portfolio of Lifeline Ventures and Sunstone Capital – including Tinkercad, Supercell, Prezi, Gidsy, Layar and Applifier.