$52,194 Raised
Tombot
Invest Now
Tombot
Invest Now
Raised
$52,194
Days Left
53
Business Description
Intro:
People love pets. 98% of pet owners say their pet is a “an important part of their family.” Pets provide a sense of companionship, and perhaps most importantly, a sense of purpose. More than 1.2 billion live animals are kept as pets worldwide, powering a pet industry in excess of $300 billion in 2023. However, about half of the world’s 2 billion households do not to maintain live pets. The reasons cited for not having live pets include health issues, burden of care, cost, and living situation restrictions.For these people, there is Tombot.
Overview:
“Imagine a world in which you could love a robotic pet as much as you love a real live pet. Then imagine that robotic pet could monitor you for safety and health.”
Tombot aims to make the first robotic puppies to be both FDA medical devices and remote safety and health monitoring platforms. Tombot’s first product “Jennie” is designed for the more than 300 million seniors with dementia or mild cognitive impairment. Seniors with dementia suffer from behavioral and psychological symptoms, including loneliness, anxiety, depression, hallucinations and violent anger. Historically doctors have relied upon psychotropic medications to manage these symptoms. However, psychotropics are particularly dangerous for seniors. The adverse effects are so severe that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service now significantly restrict the use of psychotropics in long-term care facilities.
Peer reviewed studies show robotic animals may help seniors cope with their behavioral and psychological symptoms and reduce the need for psychotropics. Tombot conducted three rounds of customer studies with over 700 seniors with dementia. The results: a very strong preference for robotic animals with realism in appearance, texture, and most importantly behaviors. Tombot worked with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop for our artistic design, and with their help we aim to make the world’s most realistic robotic animals, at a price many people can afford – even without the benefit of anticipated healthcare insurance reimbursements and government subsidies.
Tombot’s intends the expand our product line to provide solutions to everyone who can’t safely or practically care for a live animal.
Reasons to Invest:
- 1. Leadership team has a large prior exit in high tech.
- 2. $7.9M+ in equity funding raised to date, with an additional $2M convertible line of credit for manufacturing startup costs. Tombot’s lead institutional investor is Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health, the foremost seed stage healthcare investor in the US.
- 3. B2C and B2B business models, featuring recurring subscription and RaaS pricing
- 4. Artistic design services by the Jim Henson Creature Shop.
- 5. Selected by TIME magazine for its list of 100 Best Inventions in 2020.
- 6. Won a 2020 international competition by Aging2.0 for mitigating social isolation and severe loneliness.
- 7. 7,000+Pre-order and waitlist customers – including 200+ B2B customers such as hospitals, assisted living and skilled nursing facilities – from 86 countries.
- 8. Clinical research in development with premier partners, including Cleveland Clinic, Ensign Group, and Children’s Hospital of LA.
- 9. Alpha / Beta testing begins in fall of 2024; Media launch at CES show in January 2025; First customer shipments in 2025
- 10. Projecting outlier investor returns from our current round within 36 months.
Product:
Tombot’s high-tech therapy robot Jennie is a masterful combination of art, science, and engineering. Engaging with Jennie provides joy, comfort, companionship, and a sense of security in the midst of destabilizing illness. Jennie is designed to alleviate the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, including Sundowning Syndrome—a state of confusion common in dementia patients.
Rather than the looped programmed behavior you see in theme park animatronics, Jennie is uniquely interactive and autonomous, with patent-pending behaviors that closely mimic a real puppy.
Impact:
To the rising number of seniors and other people struggling with depression, anxiety, pain, or overmedication: we want to help.
Tombot is a social impact company. Our mission is to help underserved individuals, families, and communities facing mental health challenges.
Problem
Of the 55 million people worldwide with dementia, most suffer from loneliness, apathy, depression, hallucinations, or chronic pain. Doctors frequently prescribe psychotropic and opioid medications, but severe side effects reduce quality of life and increase risk of death.
Animal companionship has been shown to improve quality of life for nursing home residents and elders with dementia, but many seniors are unable to care for a live animal.
Solution
Research shows that interacting with a robotic animal reduces negative emotional and behavioral symptoms, improves social engagement, and promotes positive mood and quality of care experiences. This in turn reduces the need for psychotropic and pain medications.
Based on this knowledge, along with a deeply personal desire to revolutionize dementia care, we at Tombot set out to create a safe robotic animal companion for those with mental health adversities. Collaborating with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop (of Muppets and Dark Crystal fame), we harnessed Hollywood magic to bring our invention to life.
Business Model
Tombot’s dual B2C & B2B2C business model reflects our multi-pronged value proposition. By leveraging different sales channels and partners, we are maximizing our access to customers and markets while growing global brand recognition. Recurring revenue models ensure smooth revenue growth and long-term customer relationship.
Liquidity Event:
Tombot is planning a liquidity event for its investors in 2027.
We aim to transform the lives of the billions of people worldwide who cannot safely or practically care for a live animal. We’re raising capital this round to:
- 1. Perform Alpha and Beta product testing and attain certifications
- 2. Tool and optimize our production line
- 3. Fulfill the first 2,500 customer orders
- 4. Achieve $100+M in pre-money Series A valuation to scale the business and begin development on our next products
Market Projection
Tombot will concentrate initial marketing efforts on dementia patients in the U.S.
With over 7,000 pre-order and waitlist customers, the market potential for our robotic companion animals includes international expansion and treatment for other mental health conditions. Tombot projects shipping more than 200,000 robots by the end of 2026.
Competition
Created to address a large market gap, Jennie is realistic, appealing, and affordably priced. Future models intend to expand upon the first-in-class remote health and safety monitoring via sophisticated sensors and upgradeable software.
Tombot anticipates our patent-pending IP will be protected by FDA regulation as a medical device, and ultimately attain public and private health insurance reimbursements.
Traction & Customers
Traction:
Jennie’s therapeutic potential has been met with incredible excitement. Almost all of Tombot’s pre-order and waitlist customers discovered us through our 300+ national and international media features. Tombot’s customer waitlist grows daily, 7 days a week. What’s more, despite virtually no marketing effort by Tombot, over 30% of our customers have pre-ordered or waitlisted Jennie as a solution for loneliness, autism, depression, anxiety, PTSD, and developmental and physical disabilities.
We are now completing our Alpha 2 pre-production engineering phase and are preparing manufacturing to fulfill our large customer backlog. In the meantime, we continue to field interest from hospitals, assisted living and behavioral health facilities, individuals, caregivers, and health care professionals worldwide who wish to revolutionize mental health care.
Customers:
Our organic traction comes from Tombot’s customer-centered design process. Simply put, customers want robotic animals that look, feel, and behave like real animals, not toys. Our findings explain the magnitude of our pre-orders: patients, caregivers, and medical professionals are desperate for a non-pharmacological solution for treating mental health adversities.
Investors
Jennie has caught the eye of several prominent institutional investors, and we’ve already raised significant funds from VCs, family offices, angels, and a corporate VC.
*7.9M raised as of 9/4/24
Terms
Up to $2,000,000.22 in Series Seed Prime-2 Preferred Stock at $1.03505 per share with a minimum target amount of $10,000.65.
Offering Minimum: $10,000.65 | 9,662 shares of Common Stock
Offering Maximum: $2,000,000.22 | 1,932,274 shares of Common Stock
Type of Security Offered: Series Seed Prime-2 Preferred Stock
Purchase Price of Security Offered: $1.03505 per Share
Minimum Investment Amount (per investor): $249.45
The Minimum Individual Purchase Amount accepted under this Regulation CF Offering is $249.45. The Company must reach its Target Offering Amount of $10,000.65 by December 31, 2024 (the “Offering Deadline”). Unless the Company raises at least the Target Offering Amount of $10,000.65 under the Regulation CF offering by the Offering Deadline, no securities will be sold in this Offering, investment commitments will be cancelled, and committed funds will be returned.
Investment Bonuses:
Amount-Based Incentives:
Invest $249:
- Receive:
- 1. Priority Waitlist (after Kickstarter & Front of the Line Passes)
- 2. Annual Investor Call
Invest $1,000:
- Receive:
- 1. Front of the Waitlist Line Pass
- 2. Annual Investor Call
Invest $2,500:
- Receive:
- 1. Front of the Waitlist Line Pass
- 2. Recognition on Tombot Investor Page
- 3. Exclusive Semi-Annual Investor Call & Q&A
Invest 5,000:
- Receive:
- 1. Front of the Waitlist Line Pass
- 2. Recognition on Tombot Investor Page
- 3. Exclusive Semi-Annual Investor Call & Q&A
- 4. Exclusive Major Investor Newsletter
Invest 10,000+:
- Receive:
- 1. Front of the Waitlist Line Pass
- 2. Recognition on Tombot Investor Page
- 3. Exclusive Semi-Annual Investor Call & Q&A
- 4. Exclusive Major Investor Newsletter
- 5. Dinner and Private Tour of Tombot Robotics Lab
- 6. Invitations to Tombot Major Investor Events
-
**In order to receive perks from an investment, one must submit a single investment in the same offering that meets the minimum perk requirement. Bonus shares from perks will not be granted if an investor submits multiple investments that, when combined, meet the perk requirement. All perks occur when the offering is completed.
***Crowdfunding investments made through a self-directed IRA cannot receive non-bonus share perks due to tax laws. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) prohibits self-dealing transactions in which the investor receives an immediate, personal financial gain on investments owned by their retirement account. As a result, an investor must refuse those non-bonus share perks because they would be receiving a benefit from their IRA account.
Risks
Please be sure to read and review the Offering Statement. A crowdfunding investment involves risk. You should not invest any funds in this offering unless you can afford to lose your entire investment.
In making an investment decision, investors must rely on their examination of the issuer and the terms of the offering, including the merits and risks involved. These securities have not been recommended or approved by any federal or state securities commission or regulatory authority.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not pass upon the merits of any securities offered or the terms of the offering, nor does it pass upon the accuracy or completeness of any offering document or literature.These securities are offered under an exemption from registration; however, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has not made an independent determination that these securities are exempt from registration.
Neither PicMii Crowdfunding nor any of its directors, officers, employees, representatives, affiliates, or agents shall have any liability whatsoever arising from any error or incompleteness of fact or opinion in, or lack of care in the preparation or publication of, the materials and communication herein or the terms or valuation of any securities offering.
The information contained herein includes forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which are, in some cases, beyond the company’s control and which could, and likely will materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects the current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties, and assumptions relating to operations, results of operations, growth strategy, and liquidity. No obligation exists to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.
Security Type:
Equity Security
Price Per Share
$1.03505
Shares For Sale
1,932,274
Post Money Valuation:
$22,081,907.10
Investment Bonuses!
Amount-Based Incentives:
Invest $249:
-
Receive:
-
1. Priority Waitlist (after Kickstarter & Front of the Line Passes)
-
2. Annual Investor Call
-
Invest $1,000:
-
Receive:
-
1. Front of the Waitlist Line Pass
-
2. Annual Investor Call
-
Invest $2,500:
-
Receive:
-
1. Front of the Waitlist Line Pass
-
2. Recognition on Tombot Investor Page
-
3. Exclusive Semi-Annual Investor Call & Q&A
-
Invest 5,000:
-
Receive:
-
1. Front of the Waitlist Line Pass
-
2. Recognition on Tombot Investor Page
-
3. Exclusive Semi-Annual Investor Call & Q&A
-
4. Exclusive Major Investor Newsletter
-
Invest 10,000:
-
Receive:
-
1. Front of the Waitlist Line Pass
-
2. Recognition on Tombot Investor Page
-
3. Exclusive Semi-Annual Investor Call & Q&A
-
4. Exclusive Major Investor Newsletter
-
5. Dinner and Private Tour of Tombot Robotics Lab
-
6. Invitations to Tombot Major Investor Events
-
-
**In order to receive perks from an investment, one must submit a single investment in the same offering that meets the minimum perk requirement. Bonus shares from perks will not be granted if an investor submits multiple investments that, when combined, meet the perk requirement. All perks occur when the offering is completed.
***Crowdfunding investments made through a self-directed IRA cannot receive non-bonus share perks due to tax laws. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) prohibits self-dealing transactions in which the investor receives an immediate, personal financial gain on investments owned by their retirement account. As a result, an investor must refuse those non-bonus share perks because they would be receiving a benefit from their IRA account.
Regulatory Exemption:
Regulation Crowdfunding – Section 4(a)(6)
Deadline:
December 31, 2024
Minimum Investment Amount:
$249.45
Target Offering Range:
$10,000.65-$2,000,000.22
*If the sum of the investment commitments does not equal or exceed the minimum offering amount at the offering deadline, no securities will be sold and investment commitments will be cancelled returned to investors.
Tom Stevens
CEO
BackgroundTom Stevens is CEO and Co-founder of Tombot, Inc. Tombot was inspired by Tom’s mother who after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s dementia, Tom had to take away her dog for safety reasons. That heart-wrenching event launched him on a multi-year research and education journey to solve his mother’s problem. Tom learned that his mother’s story is shared by tens of millions of other seniors with dementia, and about 4 billion people in total who cannot safely or practically care for a live animal. Tom launched Tombot in 2017 to help these people. Prior to Tombot, Tom and his two Tombot partners built ACT Litigation Services into one of the world’s leading e-discovery companies. ACT was successfully acquired in 2011 by DiscoverReady. Tom has spent more than 35 years in senior positions in the high tech field. Tom has a Master’s of Science in Management from Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from UCLA. Married with three children, Tom occasionally attempts to play music with his vastly more talented wife, and enjoys golf, tennis, cycling, and coaching youth sports.
Hank Schorz
CTO
BackgroundHank has been a Chief-level executive for more than 40 years. As an engineering and operations expert, Hank has built multiple companies into industry leaders, including ACT Litigation Services. Hank’s technical curiosity and systems mentality give him the unique ability to fundamentally understand all of the elements of complex systems and processes. These skills have been applied to consumer electronics design and manufacturing, custom software development, computer systems integration, and very large data processing and management. Hank has also spent many years as a hobbyist roboticist and remote-control airplane builder and competitor. These experiences, combined with his career in engineering and systems design gave Hank the insight on how to technically execute the Tombot robots. Inventing the perception and control systems for our robots, Hank’s ingenuity has led to the filing of a comprehensive family of patents. Hank was the lead singer of the band “Steam,” famous for its #1 hit record “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.”
Jesse Schorz
COO
BackgroundJesse has spent more than 20 years in management and leadership positions. Jesse built and managed high-performing internal engineering and operations teams – the largest operating divisions at ACT Litigation Services. Jesse also oversaw very large contract teams and 3rd party suppliers. These experiences have led Jesse to develop best-practices operations systems. In addition to his technical skills and business acumen, Jesse is a “get stuff done” guy. Creating and adhering to operating budgets and timelines are core strengths. Jesse’s skills begin with the innate ability to accurately forecast budgets and timelines. Accurate projections are critical for the financial management of Tombot, and for setting appropriate customer and investor expectations. In addition to setting-up Tombot’s IT and operations systems, Jesse constructed and produced all of the realistic behaviors in our prototypes. Jesse leads all aspects of the identification, selection and oversight of Tombot’s supply chain, including the performance testing of key components.
Jay Goss
Director
BackgroundJay is currently a General Partner at Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health. Wavemaker 360 is a Pasadena-based venture fund focused 100% on healthcare start-ups seeking Seed and Series A investment. The fund’s core investment thesis is that healthcare is transitioning away from fee-for-service to value-based payments, and with that comes a massive amount of disruption, and entrepreneurs are already coming out of the woodwork to solve these problems. Before becoming a venture capitalist, Jay Goss helped bring companies to life. Jay has built and run businesses across a variety of different industries/sectors – digital and traditional – working entrepreneurially for early stage companies (from zero to five years old), and “intrapreneurially” inside large organizations such as Disney, Reed Elsevier, Summa Group and UCLA, building new business units on their behalf. Long story short, Jay knows the entrepreneurial journey uncommonly well.
Peter Tam
Director
BackgroundPeter Tam serves as a board member and board observer on startup and midsized medical instrumentation companies. Peter is experienced with product design, and has manufacturing expertise for medical and commercial control and instrumentation sectors. Peter brings expertise to Tombot’s Board through global strategic partners (FDA and ISO 9001); commercial control and medical instrument scale-up manufacturing; and electronic (microcontrollers based) product transformation – idea to product. Peter earned his BSEE and MSEE at California State University.