Las Vegas company works on third-generation of robot

Now they’re working to produce third-generation versions of the robot, called Romo, which is featured in the fall version of the Neiman Marcus catalog.

In between, the company landed $5 million in outside funding it’s using to hire 10 more employees and boost production to meet demand for orders and get Romo on store shelves as early as next spring.

“Everything has happened so fast,” co-founder Keller Rinaudo, 25, said of the company that is one of the earliest Vegas Tech Fund-supported startups. “We were three people a year ago.”

The newest version of Romo looks cleaner and simpler than previous models and is meant to appeal to users beyond the community of hackers and self-described nerds who bought earlier versions.

It’s set to be produced in a Chinese factory, as opposed to being constructed by hand in the founders’ apartment in the Ogden in downtown Las Vegas.

“We have the ability right now to sell a lot of robots to hackers and geeks,” Rinaudo said. “The vision for the company is to build something that is simple enough for everyone.”

And by getting a group led by Sequoia Capital, a prominent venture capital firm, Romotive is helping to put the burgeoning downtown Las Vegas tech community on a bigger map.

It’s the second company backed by the Vegas Tech Fund to receive significant outside funding. EcoMom, which sells environmentally friendly products for parents, closed on $4.7 million in funding during the summer, according to Pando Daily.

Vegas Tech Fund partner Andy White said it’s significant because it shows the fund, which also includes Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh as a partner, is succeeding in identifying companies that can grow beyond early stage funding and bring new investment into the community.

“We know that a significant amount of the economic growth comes from rapid growth tech companies,” White said. “We are able to foster companies growing beyond just the early stage seed period. That bodes very well for such a young tech community.”

Sequoia’s participation in Romotive has drawn the most attention. That’s because Sequoia, founded in 1972, is one of the most renown venture firms, with investments in tech companies like Google, Apple, Cisco, Zappos and others.

Partner Alfred Lin said he was drawn to Romotive because of the potential for app developers to use the robots as a platform for as many uses as they can dream up.

While Hsieh helped draw Lin’s attention to Romotive, the company got funding on its own merits.

“Tony’s endorsement helps, but the truth is that ultimately, it doesn’t have any bearing on Sequoia’s investment case,” Lin said an in email. “There are plenty of companies that Sequoia invests in that Tony won’t invest in and vice versa.”

Jen McCabe, chief of operations at Romotive, credited much of the company’s quick rise to its location in Las Vegas .

“You are kind of caught up in measuring yourself and your company and your product against everyone else,” she said of working in Silicon Valley. “There is so much fear and doubt that drives product development.”

In Las Vegas, “we just stay here and focused on our team and our product,” McCabe said.

Like the tech community itself, Romo has grown a lot in a short time.

The robot, priced at $150 on the Neiman Marcus site, consists of a small base that runs on track-style wheels like a tank with a connector for an iPhone or iPod touch.

Once the phone or iPod is connected, the user can control the robot with a laptop computer, iPad or smart phone.

It can move around the house, respond to voices or music and be used to stream video or communicate.

Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman at bspillman@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285 .