Roominate has no net worth today, because it stopped being an independent company in January 2016. The firmest number ever attached to it is a $10 million valuation, set on Shark Tank in September 2014 when Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner invested $500,000 for 5%. Patch Products bought the brand about fifteen months later for a price that was never made public, and the toy line has since gone out of production.
Here is what the company was worth at each stage, how much it actually sold, and where the money ended up.
What is Roominate worth today?
There is no public figure, and there has not been one since the sale. Roominate is a brand asset inside PlayMonster Group LLC, a private toy and games company based in Beloit, Wisconsin. Private companies do not publish accounts, and single brands inside them are almost never valued on their own.
Three numbers are solid:
- $10 million: the valuation the Shark Tank deal implied in September 2014.
- $4.5 million: sales in the year after the episode aired, up from $1.7 million before it.
- Undisclosed: what Patch Products paid to buy the brand in January 2016.
A valuation is what investors agree a slice of a business is worth on one particular day. Net worth is what is left after debts. For a small private toy brand, neither number reaches the public unless the owner decides to publish it.
The Shark Tank deal: $500,000 for 5%
Alice Brooks and Bettina Chen got exactly what they asked for, which almost never happens on the show.
| First aired | September 26, 2014 (Season 6, Episode 2) |
| Founders | Alice Brooks and Bettina Chen |
| Company | Maykah Inc. |
| The ask | $500,000 for 5% |
| Valuation implied | $10 million |
| The deal | $500,000 for 5%, split by Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner |
| Sales before the show | About $1.7 million |
Cuban made the first offer and attached a condition: his daughters, then 10 and 7, would get time with the two engineers as role models. Lori Greiner came in alongside him and the pair split the cheque. Neither pushed for more equity, so the $10 million valuation the founders had set for themselves survived the negotiation intact.
They had earned it. The company had sold about $1.7 million of product over roughly a year and a half, and shelf space at Toys “R” Us, Barnes & Noble and Nordstrom was already booked for that autumn. The pitch was well judged too. Every shark got a custom build, including a Mavericks court with a helicopter for Cuban, a QVC set for Greiner and a Manhattan apartment for Barbara Corcoran.
Where the money came from before Shark Tank
Roominate started on Kickstarter in 2012. The campaign asked for $25,000, cleared it in under five days, finished above $85,000 and shipped close to 1,800 units. That was enough to show kids wanted the thing, which is the hard part with a physical product.
Brooks and Chen ran the business as Maykah Inc. from the Bay Area, went through Stanford’s StartX accelerator, and raised roughly $1.5 million in outside money across the company’s whole life, the Shark Tank money included. That is very little for a toy brand that reached national retail, and it matters for the net worth question: the two founders still owned most of the company when they sold it.
How much did Roominate make after the show?
Sales climbed from $1.7 million to more than $4.5 million within a year of the episode airing. Most of that came from distribution. Roominate went into 800 Walmart stores, then Toys “R” Us, Barnes & Noble and RadioShack, and ended up in more than 5,000 stores across the United States, Canada and Australia.
The team grew from two people to eight and moved into its own office. The range reached 12 sets, split between ages six and up and eight and up, and a companion app let kids switch on the motors and lights from a phone.
Recognition followed the sales. TIME named Roominate the top toy of 2014, the line was a Toy of the Year finalist in 2015, and Brooks made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list the same year.
Who owns Roominate now, and what did it sell for?
Patch Products announced the purchase on January 6, 2016. No price appeared in the announcement, and none has been published since. Patch was a Wisconsin puzzle and games maker, owned then by Topspin Partners, looking for a way into STEM toys. Roominate came with 12 sets and a shelf of awards. Weeks later, Patch renamed itself PlayMonster.
Both founders stayed involved for a while. Brooks worked with PlayMonster’s engineers and artists on new building pieces, a stronger motor and redesigned dolls, and a refreshed line shipped in 2016. After that the connection faded and both women moved on.
Can you still buy Roominate sets?
Not new from the maker. Roominate does not appear in PlayMonster’s brand lineup, and no new Roominate product has been announced in years. What is left is old stock and second-hand kits on Amazon, eBay and a few specialist toy sites, mostly the mansion, carnival and pet vet sets, and plenty of those listings show as unavailable.
For a child who would enjoy the same kind of play now, look for building kits that include motors, lights and simple wiring rather than for the Roominate name.
What are Alice Brooks and Bettina Chen worth now?
Neither founder has a published net worth. They sold a private company at an undisclosed price, so the figures stay private.
Their careers are easy to trace. Brooks studied mechanical engineering at MIT and Stanford, worked at Nest, ran Roominate as CEO, then took an MBA at Harvard. She is now a partner at Khosla Ventures in Menlo Park, backing deep tech and sustainability startups. Chen studied electrical engineering at Caltech and Stanford and has been an engineering program manager at Apple since 2016.
Because the company raised so little outside money, the pair held most of the equity at the sale, so most of whatever Patch paid went to them. The size of that cheque has never been made public.
Why there is no single net worth figure
Each number attached to Roominate comes from a different moment, and only one of them is an actual valuation.
The 2014 deal priced the whole company at $10 million, based on a growing business with retail orders in hand. The $4.5 million from 2015 is revenue, not value, and a toy brand that size usually changes hands for a modest multiple of sales. The 2016 sale price is sealed. After that the trail goes cold. A brand that is out of production inside a private group has no market price to quote and no public filing to check.
Products bought the brand in January 2016 for an undisclosed sum, and the line has since gone out of production. Read the $10 million as a snapshot of one strong year, not as a figure that still stands today.
Frequently asked questions
How much is Roominate worth today?
There is no public figure. The brand sits inside PlayMonster, a private company that does not publish brand-level numbers. The last verified valuation was the $10 million implied by the 2014 Shark Tank deal.
Did the Roominate Shark Tank deal actually close?
Yes. Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner split $500,000 for 5% and the investment went through. Cuban’s investment still appears in Alice Brooks’s professional biography today.
How much did PlayMonster pay for Roominate?
The price was never announced. Patch Products, which became PlayMonster weeks later, confirmed the acquisition on January 6, 2016 without giving any terms, and no figure has surfaced since.
Are Roominate toys still being made?
No. Roominate is no longer part of PlayMonster’s brand lineup and no new sets have been released in years. Leftover and used kits still appear on Amazon, eBay and second-hand toy sellers.
What do Alice Brooks and Bettina Chen do now?
Brooks is a partner at Khosla Ventures after finishing an MBA at Harvard. Chen is an engineering program manager at Apple. Neither has a published personal net worth.
Conclusion
Roominate’s only verified valuation is the $10 million set on Shark Tank in September 2014, when Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner backed it with $500,000 for 5%. Sales peaked above $4.5 million a year, Patch
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