Martian Watches is a wearables company founded in 2007, most known for its mVoice line of hybrid smartwatches. We reviewed the original mVoice in early 2017, and later that year, the company launched a Kickstarter for the second-gen model. Unfortunately, Martian is now shutting down, after it failed to raise enough funds to complete production of the mVoice G2.

Martian published an update to G2 backers yesterday, and reader Dan has kindly provided us with the text:

Dear Backers,

As we advised in this last update, it is with great sadness and regret that we have decided that we have no other choice but to shut down operations and close the company. We truly believed, as did you, that we had a great project in the Martian Watches brand and we were very close to completion in order to distribute the Martian G2 watches. Through Kickstarter, we were able to raise over $276,766 after deduction for certain fees toward the G2 project. We used those funds to continue to pay custom development of technologies, parts and components, manufacturing tooling and modes, assembly Jigs and test fixtures, laboratory fees for regulatory certification and tests, production parts and materials, product hardware and software engineering, and production test software programs development. In April 2018, we were able to ship out from our pilot production batch, 480 units to backers who selected Sky and Lunar models.

We were very excited, as were you, about the potential for the Martin G2 watches. Unfortunately, we are unable to come up with the total investment needed to complete the project. We needed more funds in order to complete the remaining unfulfilled units. We attempted to find new funding from venture capitalists, private equity firms and a lead investor for a large financing round of $15M but were unsuccessful. We tried to license our G2 intellectual property as a turnkey solution to other companies but unfortunately, discussions were taking too long and we ran out of time. We also reached out to our current investors, who previously loaned $1.5M as convertible notes to the company, but they declined to put up any additional funds. As such, we recently terminated all operations. We do not have sufficient liquid assets to pay all of our debts at this time. Our intent is to liquidate the remaining assets for distribution to creditors on a pro rata basis. First, we need to determine the total number of creditors, the amount of their claims, the priority of certain groups of claims and then the best way to sell and realize value of the company's remaining assets, which consist mostly of intellectual property rights, including patents related to the Martian Watch brand. We expect it will take approximately 30 days to develop the best way to proceed, at which time we will further update you on the next steps.

This is obviously not the path we envisioned for the Martian watches but we have exhausted our options for raising the additional funds we need in order to complete the project. With no additional funding available, we have no other choice but to shut down. It has been a great journey working with all of you - our backers. We could not reach where we are at without any of you. Thank you and we are sorry that we were not able to complete this project.

Martian

It's always a shame to see a company go under, especially with people losing their jobs as a result. As mentioned above, this also leaves a few backers without the watches they paid for in October 2017. No other information is available at this time, but G2 backers should keep an eye on the Kickstarter page for further messages from the company.

Thanks: Dan