JAPAN TIMES



 

A Tokyo-based developer of a laundry-folding robot filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday due to financial difficulties.

Seven Dreamers Laboratories Inc. released a statement saying that it had insufficient funds to continue the business despite its wish to provide unique products to consumers.

https://youtu.be/7apeh4tjsgI

The firm created a buzz when it unveiled its automated laundry-folding machine, dubbed Laundroid, in 2015.

According to Teikoku Databank Ltd., a credit research company, Seven Dreamers Laboratories had ¥2.2 billion in debt, as it struggled to ship the robot and had to invest heavily in its research and development.

https://youtu.be/rUZzUQDYzVc

After postponing its initial goal to sell the robot in fiscal 2017, it had to push back its goal for fiscal 2018, too.

It is negotiating with other firms to sell and transfer the Lanudroid business, Teikoku Databank said.

Seven Dreamers Laboratories had said that, because people have to spend so much folding laundry in their lifetimes, it wanted to set them free from that duty by developing Laundroid, whose prototype model looked like a big closet but was apparently packed with robotics and image recognition technologies designed to fold clothes.

The concept of the laundry-folding robot has attracted much attention and interest from investors in Japan and abroad. The startup was partnering with Panasonic Corp. and Daiwa House Industries Co.

Seven Dreamers Laboratories, which was founded in 2014, had received more than ¥10 billion in investment, including from foreign investors.
The firm also won the Japan round of the 2018 Startup World Cup, an international competition for startups, to advance to the final.

A spokesperson for Seven Dreamers Laboratories could not be reached on Tuesday evening.