AI tools that died in 2020

Acquired by Ocado Group in 2020 (~$262M); the piece-picking robotics tech was absorbed into Ocado Intelligent Automation.

Acquired by Ocado Group.

Acquired by Intel in November 2020 (reported ~$60M) and folded into Intel's AI/ML software stack.

Acquired by Intel.

Bossa Nova Robotics, a 2005 Carnegie Mellon spinout, built six-foot autonomous robots that roamed store aisles scanning shelves for out-of-stock items. Its marquee deployment put robots in roughly 500 Walmart stores. In November 2020 Walmart ended the contract, deciding human workers could track inventory faster and more cheaply. Bossa Nova laid off about half its staff and wound down its retail robotics business.

Last known pricing: Enterprise retail contracts

Celonis acquired Make, then trading as Integromat, in a deal announced on 14 October 2020 and reported at over $100M; the platform was rebranded from Integromat to Make in 2022. It runs as a semi-autonomous business unit inside Celonis with its own product and engineering team, and has kept growing — roughly 100,000 paying customers and a push into agentic AI.

Acquired by Celonis.