A few years ago, chef robotics suffered a possible death.
Founder Rajat Bhajiria told the Tech Crunch of his six -year -old company, “There were many dark periods where I was thinking about defeat.” But friends and investors encouraged it, so he kept steadfast.
Today, chef robotics not only survived, it is one of the few food tech robotic companies that are promoted. Startup, which has recently collected the Million 23 million series A, has 40 employees and marke customers like Amy’s kitchen and chef Bombay. Bhajiria says dozens of robots installed in the United States have made 45 million meals to date.
This comparison is from the Cemetery of Failed Companies of Food Tech Robotics, including Chowbotics with its salad -making robot Sally; Pizza Delivery Robot Zoom; Food kiosk robot MarakoriAnd,, right now, Egg Tech Little robot company.
Bhajiria says it saved her company by doing something that fears the founders of the initial phase: signed consumers and millions of dollars of revenue.
The problem of grip
All this began when Bhajiria received a master’s degree in robotics Apunn’s famous grip lab. He promised science -fi, dreamed of the world where the robot worked in our house, hit our lawn with grass, and cooked us Five Star Dinner.
Such a world is not yet available because engineers have not yet fully resolved robotic The problem of grip. It is a difficult task to train the same robot without crushing the glass of alcohol and washing the cast iron pan without falling.
When it comes to robotic chefs, “no one has made a datastate of how you pick up the blueberry and not scashy it, or, how do you choose the cheese and how do you not lift it?” He describes.
Its original idea with chef robotics was like a long list of robotics startups that died: a robotic line for fast comfortable restaurants. This is a huge industry With a permanent shortage of employees.
“We really had a deal. Like we had a multi -million dollar deal. Obviously, we’re not doing it anymore. So what happened?” He said. “We can’t basically solve the technical problem.”
In this type of business, an employee completes the order by collecting all the different components required for each meal. These restaurant robots want to create a copy of this process because alternatives have to dedicate to dozens of robots, and have been caledical for a single component, some of which may only be used occasionally (we are looking at you, Anchoz).
But Bhajiria and the team cannot make a successful pickup-up-to-robot because there is no training data. He asked his potential users to allow him to install robots for one or two ingredients, collect training data and build it from there. They said no.
Then there was an episode in Bhajiria.
Instead of trying to give existing customers what they want, it may need different users. He reminded, “He suck honestly, because I just tried to persuade these people, these fast casual companies to work with us.”
Someone says yes
This did not help with fundraising after 2021. The VC was also looking at the cemetery. “We talked to dozens of different funds,” said Bhagjiria. “We have just been rejected again and again.”
Bhajiria was thinking of giving up. “You come home and are like, what am I doing in my life? Am I doing wrong? Should I leave?” He remembered.
But he excavated and In March, 2023, collecting a round of $ 11.2 million seeds The construction capital is headed by Promas Ventures, Cleaner Perkins, and Ganges.
Bhajiria and the team also got their perfect market, which is a part of the food industry called “high mix manufacturing”.
These are food makers that have many, many recipes, and thousands of serving, but usually as a food or food tray. For example; Salad and Sandwich or important courses and side dishes. These are foods used by airlines and hospitals, etc., or frozen food for consumers.
Instead of catching all the ingredients for each meal instead of an employee, the “high mix” employees create an assembly line. Each person repeatedly incorporates his individual ingredients to the tray until the order is complete. Then they collect the next recipe.
He explained, “These are actually hundreds of humans who stand in the 34 Fahrenheit room, and they are eating eight hours a day.” “So this is just a terrible task.”
As a result, there is also a permanent labor shortage in the industry.
In the past, robotics were not economically possible because it contained a variety of ingredients. But a startup operates a flexible component boot, where robots are made in partnership with food maker.
It is still better, “as we learn how to do this coresu, or we learn peas, or this sauce, or this zucchini,” Bots get real -world training data that makes them eventually need to offer fast comfortable restaurants. Bhajiria says it is still on its roadmap.
The best of all, thanks to the interest of the birth of VC in everything, this time, it was “strange,” says Bhajjiria.
Bhajiria says the avatar venture partners, who are on the joint basis of former Norwest VC Mohan Kumar, were especially looking for the launch of the “AI” in the physical world and in fact pursued chef robotics. He closed the period in less than a month. Under the leadership of the avatar, the capital, the Bloomberg beta, and the Promas ventures pile up, Among others.
The new funding chef has been deposited yesterday. 8.8.8 million. He also signed a $ 26.75 million loan from the Silicon Valley Bank to finance the goods.
He said, and this time the process was “enthusiastic”.