The ferocious dogfights that have long threatened to crowd out the skies and the personal drone market have been temporarily quelled as another competitor drops out of the market. Unlike GoPro's Karma drone (which actually managed to get off the ground, despite having problems staying afloat), Lily Robotics never managed to get their product off the factory lines.
The company announced the Lily camera drone back in May 2015, captivating the imaginations of many around the world with their drone's ability to fly itself while tracking a user and recording video for up to 20 minutes.
You could simply throw the drone in the air, and it would activate and float. They raised an initial $15 million USD in investment, and then followed up with $34 million USD in pre-orders. This immediately put them on the map, since at the time the ability to follow was quite unique.
Each drone had a pre-order price of US$499, and Lily originally planned to ship all their drones out by February 2016. Obviously that hasn't happened yet, and shipping was later delayed to summer 2016, and then one last time to early 2017.
During this whole time, Zero Zero Robotics, Yuneec, GoPro, and DJI have all managed to create drones that can track and follow the user, with everyone except GoPro able to keep theirs in the sky.
Just yesterday the founders of Lily Robotics announced via email and letter to their customers that the company will be closing. They failed to raise additional funding to start production of the drones, and won't be able to deliver on their promises. However, they do plan to reimburse all pre-order customers within the next 60 days.
"We have been racing against a clock of ever-diminishing funds. Over the past few months, we have tried to secure financing in order to unlock our manufacturing line and ship our first units - but have been unable to do this," said the company's co-founders, Henry Bradlow and Antoine Balaresque in their announcement. "As a result, we are deeply saddened to say that we are planning to wind down the company and offer refunds to customers. "
However, that's the least of their worries, as TechCrunch have just revealed that San Francisco's District Attorney has just launched a lawsuit against Lily Robotics for false advertising. Apparently, the drone used in Lily's initial launch video to showcase the point-of-view of the drone was a DJI Inspire.
Talk about adding insult to injury.
. digitalrev.com
2017-1-13 03:00