Robotic toy maker Orbotix raises another $20 million in funding

Orbotix, the company that makes fast-moving, robotic toys that you control with smartphone apps, has raised another $20 million in funding. This brings the total raised by maker of the popular Sphero ball to $35 million, as it gears up to start selling its next product, the cylindrical Ollie, later this year. Previously, Orbotix — based out of Boulder, Colorado and originally incubated at TechStars — had raised $15.2 million from TechStars, Foundry Group, Highway 12 Ventures and SK Ventures.

Earlier this morning, news broke that Orbotix, the robotic toy maker behind Sphero and Ollie, is allegedly raising a new round of about $20 million dollars. Here’s the real deal. The company is raising $15.5 million as its fourth full institutional funding round, Orbotix cofounder and chief technology officer Ian Bernstein told VentureBeat in an interview. Shea Ventures led the round, with additional participation from the Foundry Group and Grishin Robotics. The company declined to share its current valuation. The company also said that it will use the funding to further its global expansion — it’s currently in 80 countries and has retail store presence in 70 of those — and to increase global awareness and mass marketing exposure for the connected toy category, as chief marketing officer Kelly Zachos said to VentureBeat.