FoldiMate

FoldiMate, Inc. was a California-based home automation company that aimed to address the common chore of laundry folding with a robotic solution. The company was founded in 2012 by Gal Rozov, an Israeli software engineer and product manager who, frustrated with the tedious task, decided to apply his technical background to automate it. After quitting his job in 2010 and spending two years on development, Rozov moved to Silicon Valley to collaborate with a robotics team, securing a patent for the technology by 2013.

The company's core product was the FoldiMate, a machine designed to automatically fold various clothing items like shirts, pants, and towels. Users would clip individual garments onto the machine, which would then pull them in, fold them using internal robotic arms, and neatly stack them in a tray below. The process was designed to be swift, with the capability of folding an entire load of laundry in just a few minutes. Early concepts also included features for steaming, de-wrinkling, and adding fragrance, though these were later simplified to focus on the core folding function to streamline the path to market. The target market was primarily busy households, but potential applications for small businesses like laundromats and hotels were also noted. The business model was based on direct-to-consumer sales, with a planned retail price of around $980. The company garnered significant public interest through viral videos and presentations at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2017, 2018, and 2019, which helped attract thousands of pre-order deposits and registered interest.

Despite raising approximately $3 million in seed funding by 2017 and later securing investment from BSH Home Appliances Group, FoldiMate faced significant challenges in bringing its complex product to mass production. The launch date was repeatedly pushed back from an initial 2018 target to late 2019. Ultimately, the company could not overcome the final hurdles of manufacturing and ceased operations. In August 2021, FoldiMate informed customers who had paid deposits that the company was going out of business and facilitated refunds.

Keywords: laundry folding robot, home automation, Gal Rozov, robotic appliance, clothes folder, CES, consumer robotics, household technology, laundry automation, smart home appliance, automated folding, laundry management, clothing care, BSH Hausgeräte, SeedInvest, robotic engineering, consumer electronics, patented technology, garment folding, laundry gadget