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MegaBots Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryRetail
Genregiant robots
Founded2014; 10 years ago (2014)
FoundersGui Cavalcanti
Matt Oehrlein
Andrew Stroup
Brinkley Warren
HeadquartersHayward, California, United States
Number of locations
1
Key people
Founders:
Gui Cavalcanti
Matt Oehrlein
Andrew Stroup
Brinkley Warren
Productsgiant robots
Websitemegabots.com

MegaBots Inc. was an American startup company headquartered in Hayward, California that created giant robots and real-world mecha for robotic sports competitions.[1][2][3][4][5]

In June 2015, MegaBots challenged Japan-based Suidobashi Heavy Industry to the world's first giant robot duel.[6][7] Suidobashi accepted the challenge on the condition that the fight include melee combat.[8] In 2017, the company premiered a scripted version of the duel on Twitch TV, which ended in victory for the MegaBots team.[9][10]

In 2019, Matt Oehrlein declared MegaBots had run out of money.[11] The same year, the company liquidated its assets, selling off its giant robot Eagle Prime on eBay.[1] [12]

History

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MegaBots was co-founded in 2014 by Gui Cavalcanti, Matt Oehrlein, and Andrew Stroup (and follow-on co-founder Brinkley Warren in 2015) with the vision to start an international robot fighting sports league.[13][14][15][16][17]

MegaBot at Maker Faire 2015

The company premiered the Mark II ("Iron Glory") robot at Maker Faire in 2015.[18] The company then went on to raise a seed round of $3.85M dollars from investors including Autodesk, DCM, Maveron, Azure Capital, and AME Cloud Ventures.[19] In August 2015, MegaBots announced plans to upgrade its Mark II robot with melee capabilities by raising funds through a Kickstarter campaign and partnering with Howe and Howe Technologies, NASA, and IHMC.[20][21][22] MegaBots launched a YouTube web series at Techcrunch Disrupt 2016.[23][24] The series followed the progress of the team as they upgraded the Mark II robot to take on the Kuratas. The company won Best in Show at the 2017 LAUNCH Startup Festival and announced a total subscriber base of more than 250k, 20M+ video views, 29 billion press mentions, and an advertising equivalency value of $270M, which is one third of the brand value of the Transformers franchise during the period since MegaBots was founded.[25] The company also announced its plans to launch spin-offs of the MegaBots entertainment brand in verticals such live events, sponsorship, TV/Digital, and merchandising.[26] The company premiered the Mk.III ("Eagle Prime") robot at Maker Faire Bay Area in 2017 and the robot was featured on Jay Leno's Garage.[27][28]

After the company encountered complications while producing the world's first giant robot duel in Japan, at the request of Suidobashi Heavy Industries; a scripted version of the duel was filmed and was premiered on Amazon's Twitch TV in October 2017, with MegaBots winning in two rounds over Suidobashi.[9][29][30][10][31][32] The match has since been viewed over 8.9M times and received a Guinness World Record in the category of "Largest Robots to Fight".[33][34]

In September 2019, the company had run out of money.[11] Their assets were liquidated and the Eagle Prime robot that cost the company $2,500,000 to build was sold on eBay for $29,900. [2][12]

References

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  1. ^ "US to take on Japan in battle of giant robots". BT.com. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  2. ^ "Megabots v Kuratas: US and Japan battle it out for robot supremacy". the Guardian. Associated Press. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  3. ^ Somerville-born fighting robot to battle Japanese machine
  4. ^ Megabots Linkedin Profile
  5. ^ NASA And MegaBots Team Up To Build Giant Fighting Robots
  6. ^ "Fighting Robots! U.S. MegaBot Challenges Japan : DNews". DNews. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  7. ^ "Team USA launches Kickstarter to fund its giant robot duel with Japan". The Verge. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  8. ^ UTC, Lance Ulanoff2015-07-06 20:43:34. "Challenge accepted: America's giant robot will battle Japan's giant robot". Mashable. Retrieved 2015-12-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ a b Choudhury, Saheli Roy (2017-10-18). "Giant robots from Japan and the US just battled — and a new champion reigns". CNBC. Retrieved 2019-08-21.
  10. ^ a b "Much-Anticipated Giant Robot Fight Was Staged, Took 3 Days to Film - ExtremeTech". www.extremetech.com. Retrieved 2019-08-21.
  11. ^ a b Brian, Heater (September 24, 2019). "MegaBots calls it a day, puts fighting robot up for sale on eBay". TC.
  12. ^ a b Barylick, Chris. "MegaBots Liquidates its Assets, Sells Giant Robot on eBay". East Bay Express. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
  13. ^ "MegaBots wants to make your giant battle mech dreams come true". Engadget. Retrieved 2014-10-10.
  14. ^ "10 Best Things We Saw and Heard at New York Comic Con". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2014-10-14.
  15. ^ "The Next Billion Dollar Sports League Could Be Giant Robots That Fight To The Death". Business Insider. Retrieved 2014-10-15.
  16. ^ "Rise of the MegaBots". Popular Science. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
  17. ^ "Giant robot fighting: Next billion-dollar sport?". CNBC. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  18. ^ MegaBots at Maker Faire 2015: World Debut of the Mk. II Mech, retrieved 2019-08-21
  19. ^ Kolodny, Lora. "MegaBots raises $2.4 million to create league of human-piloted, giant fighting robots". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-04-15.
  20. ^ USA vs. Japan Part II: Giant robots set to duel
  21. ^ "An American Team Is Making a Giant Robot to Challenge Japan". Time. 2015-08-19. Archived from the original on 2023-04-04.
  22. ^ MegaBots Kickstarter Campaign
  23. ^ Heater, Brian. "The first episode of the MegaBots webseries takes a wrecking ball to its six-ton robot". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-04-15.
  24. ^ Heater, Brian. "MegaBots debuts a trailer for its new web series, outlines its giant fighting robot kit". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-04-15.
  25. ^ MegaBots Inc (2017-04-10), MegaBots Wins LAUNCH Festival 2017!, retrieved 2017-04-15
  26. ^ "MegaBots". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-04-15.
  27. ^ Blumberg, Yoni (2018-04-26). "What happens when Jay Leno pilots a $2.5 million giant fighting robot". CNBC. Retrieved 2019-08-21.
  28. ^ "MegaBots Mk.III Debut". Maker Faire. Retrieved 2017-04-15.
  29. ^ Barylick, Chris. "Attack, Pulverize, Destroy, Fundraise". East Bay Express. Retrieved 2019-08-21.
  30. ^ EDT, Sofia Lotto Persio On 10/18/17 at 9:12 AM (2017-10-18). "We now know who's got the most powerful giant robot in the world". Newsweek. Retrieved 2019-08-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  31. ^ "Want to Watch Giant Robots Fight to the Death? Here's How". Fortune. Retrieved 2019-08-21.
  32. ^ Vincent, James (2017-10-12). "The USA is taking on Japan in a giant robot duel you can watch next Tuesday". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-08-21.
  33. ^ THE GIANT ROBOT DUEL, retrieved 2019-08-21
  34. ^ Guinness World Records 2019. September 2018. ISBN 978-3473554607.
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