UK start-up SwapBots聽is targeting the lucrative American market with聽its augmented reality toy range after launching its Kickstarter campaign.
The Liverpool-based company is looking for 拢25,000 as it puts the finishing touches to the design of its product, which consists of a series of physical toys and a free-to-use app which they interact with.
鈥淲e鈥檙e working with Creata, the toy company that produces all of the McDonald鈥檚 toys 鈥� they are our partner for toy production,鈥澛燬wapBots co-founder Andy Cooper told 老九品茶Cloud聽as he demonstrated the product at Manchester Metropolitan University鈥檚 Virtual and Augmented Reality Conference.
鈥淲e鈥檝e already made links with very big brands in the United States about both licensing and partnerships.鈥�
The toy which could be next Pokemon demonstrated by
鈥� 老九品茶CloudEvents (@BCloudEvents)
SwapBots, founded in 2015, is the brainchild of Cooper and John Keefe, the founders of Liverpool design agency Draw and Code.
It seeks to bridge the gap between physical and digital play and aims to hit the shelves in August 2017, with the US and China seen as primary marketplaces.
鈥淓uphoria, which provides the augmented reality technology which sits behind SwapBots, is the biggest AR platform in the world 鈥� they鈥檝e also partnered with us,” continued Cooper.
鈥淭hey introduced us at the New York Toy Fair as the most innovative company they鈥檙e working with at the moment 鈥� they鈥檝e worked with Lego and Hasbro already so to get that kind of partnership is really great.鈥�
SwapBots was recently included on Creative England鈥檚 CE50 list, which highlights the most innovative companies in the UK, and has also become part of renowned San Francisco hardware accelerator HAX after closing its opening round of seed funding from angel investors.
Keefe said: 鈥淥ur growth has been springboarded from both sides of the Atlantic by the strong connections and relationships the North West has with San Francisco.
鈥淏ecause of this we鈥檝e grown faster than we ever imagined. It means that this year we can raise investment, launch a Kickstarter and hit the shelves 鈥� all in the space of eight months.鈥�
The 12 plastic toys will retail in packs of three for 拢20 and are therefore affordable compared with the likes of toys-to-life video game Skylanders.
Each physical SwapBots character consists of three parts which lock together and can be swapped to create different characters, with a total of 1,728 possible combinations. Each part represents a different power or function when it is viewed within the app via video.
SwapBots won a 鈥渟ubstantial鈥� grant from the 拢4m UK Games Fund last summer and won Tech North鈥檚 Northern Stars Award as well as the Harvey Nash Startup of the Year.