Reaching 1 Million Kids, Ozobot Adds $3 Million in Series a Preferred Funding Round Led by Tribeca Venture Partners

Funds will be used to support product development and further Ozobot’s
mission to turn consumers of technology into creators

REDONDO BEACH, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Evollve Inc., the hardware maker behind Ozobot (www.ozobot.com),
today announced it raised $3 million in a Series A preferred funding
round led by Tribeca Venture Partners. Ozobot builds smart, small and
social robots that teach the creative side of coding. Funds will be used
to support product development of the Ozobot Bit, Ozobot Evo and
additional missions and games.

Nielsen says people spend about 12 hours a day consuming digital media.
Ozobot’s mission is to cut that screen time in half and turn consumers
of technology into creators. It’s currently growing 400 percent
year-over-year, and its product reaches 1 million kids around the world.
Ozobot goes beyond the home. It’s in 3,000 classrooms and is used to
teach art, English, history, science and more. Teachers who use Ozobot
report their students have a 70% better retention rate.

Ozobot recently previewed some of its 2017 product developments at CES.
This year, it plans to release level 5 of OzoBlockly, bot-to-bot
recognition, and a limited edition rose gold Evo.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Tribeca Venture Partners, which
has a proven track record of working with tech, commerce and
entertainment startups, to continue building the best product and work
toward our mission of cutting screen time in half,” said Nader Hamda,
founder and CEO of Ozobot. “Their investment in us pushes us to become
even more laser-focused on providing the most fun, engaging and creative
experience for all, with even more missions, games and use cases than
before.”

By coloring on a piece of paper, users can bring Ozobot to life through
a patented language of color commands, which can direct the Ozobot to
spin, dance, speed up, slow down, zigzag and more. Ozobots have three
tiers of play: 1) color commands, 2) block-based programming with
OzoBlockly, based off of Google’s Blockly and 3) missions, which let
users unlock new levels and discover more while boosting coding skills
and creativity.

“Our commitment to Ozobot signifies our firm belief that they’re the
best way for kids and adults alike to learn the creative side of
coding,” said Brian Hirsch, co-founder and managing partner at Tribeca
Venture Partners. “Its patent on the color command language makes it the
simplest way to learn how to code, and its OzoBlockly language gets so
advanced that it keeps PhDs entertained. We’re thrilled to be partnering
with them as they grow their business to new heights.”

Ozobot has shipped more than half a million units to date. The tech toy
market is worth $150 billion, and Gartner predicts smart toy sales will
grow globally from 8M units this year to 421M units by 2020.

For more information on Ozobot, please visit www.ozobot.com.

ABOUT EVOLLVE, INC.

Evollve Inc., maker of the popular Ozobot smart robot, is a company
dedicated to blending creative thinking with business disciplines to
bring new ideas to market. Evollve’s focus is on introducing new ways to
combine social interaction with digital apps. Ozobot launched in fall
2014 with the vision to create an innovative way to play, learn and
socially interact in an ever-expanding digital world. Through game
applications and creative curriculums, Ozobot introduces interactive
robots by blending entertainment and education in the family room as
well as the classroom. Their mission is to provide learners as well as
gamers of all ages a new option to play, learn and interact as well as
inspire them to make the jump from using technology to actively shaping
and creating it. For more information on Evollve Inc. and Ozobot, please
visit www.ozobot.com.

ABOUT TRIBECA VENTURE PARTNERS

Tribeca Venture Partners (TVP) is an early stage venture capital fund
based in New York City. TVP partners with world class entrepreneurs
leveraging emerging technologies and business models to create and
disrupt huge markets. TVP serves entrepreneurs who transform industries
and build great companies. As active, long-term partners to our
entrepreneurs, TVP contributes capital and strategic advice. TVP invests
across a wide variety of industry and technology sectors including
adtech, fintech, healthcare IT, consumer tech, AI & machine learning,
digital media, Software as a Service (SaaS) and mobile tech. For more
information visit www.tribecavp.com.

Contacts

Moxie Communications Group
Jenny Chao
Jenny@moxiegrouppr.com

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