PandaBot Succeeds - and Fails

We wondered what might happen to the Toronto-based project attempting to produce a user-friendly personal 3D printer. Their Kickstarter campaign languished and didn't seem to have the momentum to make to their target, and it seems they didn't. Their campaign was abruptly closed with a total slightly south of USD$40K. 

 

That's the bad news. But there seems to be some good news, too. An update on the campaign from Panda Robotics says: 

 

In the past weeks, we’ve received requests from institutions like universities, resellers, distributors and individuals who want to buy final PandaBots in bulk. This is wonderful, but we don’t want our Kickstarter backers, those who put their money on the line for us, to settle for a beta product so we can build a better product for all those who waited. Our wish is for our backers’ experience with Panda Robotics to be free from the inevitable concerns that arise from beta products. This will ensure you will be able to save your money and purchase the PandaBot when the final product is ready. To achieve these ends, we are in the process of seeking alternative forms of funding in order to manufacture and certify the production run.

 

This development seems rather curious. Would institutions really want to order bulk quantities of PandaBots? Perhaps. Nevertheless, we'll see over the next few months whether Panda Robotics is able to come up with the cash. 

 

Via Kickstarter

Comments

[Gene Kay]

The primary reason that they pulled the plug on Kickstarter was because of the bad output quality photos. They were only a couple grand away from their goal when they started posting pictures of the bot's output, which were pretty dismal. People started pulling their funding and Panda cancelled the Kickstarter before it went down even further.