"We know this isn't the outcome you expected, and it isn't what we wanted either. We've all put big chunks of our lives into this company and it really sucks to see it failing," the post said.

"We're proud of the product though, and hope it can live on for a while through the community, while we work out how to move forward."

Looking for an angel

Signed by 11 team members including co-founder and chief executive Daniel Friedman and chief technology officers Mark Wolfe, the team said they had decided to shut down the company while it still had the funds to pay creditors, ship several hundred of the product and refund the rest in the coming months.

"We have some final grant money arriving in a few months. A few of us are looking at loaning the company the money before then to pay for the shipping."

Ninja Blocks' Ninja Sphere allows users to control lights and heating with a swipe of your hand. Ninja Blocks

The software that manages the products is open-source, so developer can continue to work with and improve the Sphere, which unites the earlier products and systems to be managed by one device.

Ninja Blocks was one of the leaders in the emerging internet-connected devices industry, known as the "internet of things". A 2014 report by international research company Markets and Markets estimates this industry will be worth $US290 billion globally by 2017 and would continue to grow by 30 per cent each year.


The blog post said the team was hopeful of finding a solution, possibly an angel investor to supply critically needed cash to continue, they had no viable immediate options beyond closing down. They plan to continue to manage their developer communities, and push updates through to the devices when asked.

"We're all reeling here from a big few years and a very difficult few months. But we are all proud of what we've been able to accomplish, feel privileged to have worked on such an ambitious project, and most of all humbled by the community that built up around our small team."

Ninja Blocks CEO Daniel Friedman was among the execs who penned a blog post explaining the decision to shut down the company. Dominic Lorrimer

The Ninja Blocks team was contacted for further comment.