Cynthia Breazeal, founder of Boston startup Jibo, has raised US $38.6 million to produce a social robot named Jibo for home use. Equipped with cameras and microphones, the robot is taller than a toaster and shaped like a desk fan, capable of recognizing faces, understanding speech, and responding in an amiable voice. Jibo helps family members coordinate schedules, update to-do lists, snap photos, read interactive stories, and assist with video calls. First deliveries are scheduled for March and April, and the latest batch at a prerelease price of $750 has been sold out since last August. The global robotics market will more than double in the next 10 years, growing from US $27 billion to $67 billion, according to a Boston Consulting Group report. Breazeal emphasizes that social robotics focuses on human engagement rather than just data. Despite Jibo’s personality—staring with a one-eyed face, emitting robotic giggles, and swiveling—the dream of a useful personal robot remains old, as nearly all home robots introduced over roughly 40 years, including Sony’s Aibo, have failed commercially.