Exclusive: Miko acquires chessboard maker Square Off

Miko acquires a majority stake in robotics-based chess game startup Square Off in a stock and cash deal. The development has come after five months of Miko’s $13.4 million debt round from Stride Ventures.

The board at Miko has passed a special resolution to issue 250 Series C1 CCPS at an issue price of Rs 4,60,560.35 per share worth Rs 11.50 crore against 14,596 equity and preference shares of Square Off, according to its regulatory filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Miko’s board has also decided to invest Rs 7.60 crore in Square Off and another Rs 3.80 crore in cash consideration against the remaining shares held by the founders, the company mentioned in the filing.

Square Off Chess is a physical chessboard which is connected to its app and enables users to play against the board or anyone from across the globe. According to Crunchbase, the company has raised $1.6 million from investors such as Kstart Capital, India Quotient and RB Capital. Over the years, it also launched edtech platform Square Off ‘Viktor, learning tool Smart Piano and interchangeable surface gaming platform Swap X.

Launched by Sneh R Vaswani, Prashant V Iyengar, and Chintan S Raikar, Miko claims to ship its product in more than 140 countries. It creates emotionally intelligent robots that leverage artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) to develop its flagship robot brand: Miko. The company also allows child-focused content partners and developers to port their content on Miko and make it available through subscription.

In August 2021, Miko scooped up $28 million in a Series B round led by IIFL. The company was valued at around $86 million during the equity round as per Fintrackr‘s estimates. Entrackr was first to report its Series B round.

While Miko is yet to file its financial statements for FY22, its operating revenue grew 46% to Rs 26.39 crore in FY21. The company posted a loss of Rs 20.54 crore during the fiscal year ended March 2021.