1. Promising Startups that failed

Anki

Anki was a robotics based startup company famous for their robots Cozmo and Vector. Company raised around $180 million over the course of it's life and even hired animators from Pixar and Dreamworks to work on their robots. It was doing well and sold around 1.5 million of their robots. However, failing to secure a needed funding and not being able to sustain itself on the market the company went bankrupt and shut down.

Yik Yak

Yik Yak was an anonymous social media app for students that was launched in 2013. It gained a lot of popularity between 2013 and 2014. However, due to it's use for cyber-bullying it lost a good portion of it's user base in the following years. Despite attempts of improving Yik Yak being made, it's decrease in popularity led to it's shut down in 2017.

Navdy's heads-up display

 

Navdy's idea was to make a compact transparent HUD that would display GPS navigation directly in front of the driver. The device would replace the need to look at the phone and help you focus on the road. Navdy also made an app that you could link up with the main display to get additional information on the HUD. Built-in heads-up displays were existent in some cars, although in the luxurious models, Navdy wanted to bring them to the mainstream cars as well. However, they didn't sell well as the initial price was $799, which was later dropped to $499. But even with the price drop it was too expensive for the average consumer. In addition, Navdy's HUD received harsh feedback. Customers complained that the HUD obstructed the vision, becoming the problem it wanted to solve. The biggest reason this company failed was the implementation of their own navigational system. Navdy didn't thought the costs of maintaining the service would be so high and this led to their shut down in 2018.