A few years ago, Robotics chef stood in the face of potential death.
“There were many dark periods in which I thought about surrender,” the founding father of Rajat Bhageria tells TechCrunch about his six -year company. But friends and investors encouraged him, so he persevered.
Today, the chef Robotics not only survived, but it is one of the few robotic firms that bloom. The startup, which recently collected the A series price $ 23 million, has 40 employees and tent clients, reminiscent of Amy’s Kitchen and Chef Bombay. Bhageria says that dozens of robots installed in the US have made 45 million meals.
Compared to the cemetery of unsuccessful robotic firms of food technologies, including chowbotics with a robot producing Sally salads; Robot providing zume pizza; Robot with a food kiosk Karakuriand recently Agtech Small company Robotów.
Bhageria says that he saved his company, doing something that the founders are afraid of at an early stage: reversing revenues signed by customers and tens of millions of dollars.
The problem with the gripping
It all began when Bhageria made a master’s degree in the field of robotics The famous Grarasp Upenn laboratory. He dreamed of the promised world of science fiction, in which the works performed our homework, mound our lawns and cooked us five -star dinners.
Such a world does not exist yet, because engineers still have to totally solve the robots The problem with the gripping. Training the same robot to scrub a wine glass without crushing it, and a forged iron pan without dropping is a difficult task.
As for robotic chefs: “Nobody has built a set of data about how you collect blueberry and do not rot it, or how you collect cheese and you don’t have a job?” Describes.
His original idea with chef robotics was much like the long list of startup robotics that died: a robotic line for fast, free restaurants. This is a huge industry with a chronic deficiency of employees.
“We actually signed contracts. As if we had contracts signed by many millions of dollars. Of course, we don’t do it anymore. What happened?” He said. “Basically, we could not solve the technical problem.”
In this sort of enterprise, the worker fills out the order, placing all the various ingredients obligatory for each meal. These restaurants want robots to repeat this process, because the alternative is dozens of robots dedicated and calibrated for one ingredient, some of which may only be used sometimes (we glance at you, anchovies).
But Bhagery and Team couldn’t build a successful job job because training data does not exist. He asked his potential customers to permit him to put in robots for one or two ingredients, collect training data and build from there. They said no.
Then Bhageria had a revelation.
Instead of supporting, trying to provide existing customers what they wanted, perhaps he needed various customers. “It was honestly sucking because I spent a year and a half, trying to convince these people, these quick, free companies, to cooperate with us,” he remembered.
Saying that it does not result in yes
It didn’t help to lift funds after 2021. It was brutal. VC also looked at the cemetery. “We talked to dozens of different funds,” said Bhageria. “We have just been rejected over and over again.”
Bhageria was considering about give up. “Are you coming home and are you, what am I doing in my life? Do I do the wrong thing? Should I give up?” He remembered.
But he slipped and In March 2023, he collected a round of $ 11.2 million Directed by Construct Capital, in addition to landing of checks from Promus Ventures, Kleiner Perkins and Gaingels.
Bhageria and the team also found their perfect market, a part of the food industry referred to as “high -mixture production”.
These are food producers who have many, many recipes and make 1000’s of portions, but normally as meals or trays for meals. For example; Salads and sandwiches or fundamental dishes and starters. These are meals used by airlines and hospitals, etc. or are frozen meals for consumers.
Instead of one worker grasping all the ingredients of each meal, “High Mix” employees form a mounting line. Each person repeatedly adds their individual component of the tray until the end of the order. Then they submit the next recipe.
“Actually, hundreds of people stand in 34 Fahrenheit’s room and basically collect food for eight hours a day,” he describes. “So it’s just a terrible job.”
Therefore, this industry also has chronic shortages of workforce.
Robotics was not economically feasible to them in the past because of the number of engaged ingredients. But the startup building a flexible bot, in which robots are built in cooperation with the food producer, works.
Better, “when we learn how to do it chorizo, or learn peas, this sauce or these zucchini,” bots receive real training data they should finally serve fast restaurants. Bhageria says he is still on his road map.
Best of all, because of the interest in the reborn VC, all AI, collecting funds this time was “strange” easy, says Bhageria.
Bhageria says that Avataar Venture Partners, co-founders of the former Noorzek VC Mohan Kumar, specially desired to finance the start-ups of “AI in the physical world” and actually chased Robotics. He closed this round in lower than a month. Avataar led, with existing investors, constructing Capital, Bloomberg Beta and Promus Ventures, who gather, among others.
New funds bring the sum of the chef to $ 38.8 million. He also signed a loan $ 26.75 million with Silicon Valley Bank for equipment financing.
This process was “exciting,” he said.