In the past several years, the kitchen has increasingly become a focal point for the world of automation.
Others, including Zume Robotics, have been less successful – the pizza robot firm shut its doors last year after attempting a major pivot into Earth-conscious food packaging.
The new cash infusion follows a January 2021 raise of $7.7 million, bringing the total funding up to $22.5 million.
MaC Venture Capital, MFV Partners, Interwoven Ventures and Alumni Ventures joined existing backers, Construct Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Promus Ventures and Red and Blue Ventures.
Chef isn’t revealing specific sales figures, only saying that it has “robots at food companies in five cities around the US and Canada” including “Fortune 500 food companies.” Bhageria also tells TechCrunch that it has quadrupled “recurring revenue from 2022 to 2023,” though, again, nothing more specific than that.
Aniai, a startup that has built a burger-grilling robot, Alpha Grill, said today it has raised $12 million.
“Burger chains hire six to eight kitchen staff per shift to grill burgers,” Aniai CEO Gunpil Hwang said.
If the user’s patty does not meet its cooking recipes, specifications and requirements, Alpha Grill promptly notifies the cooking staff to ensure quality control.
It has also been testing Alpha Grill with burger chains in the U.S. since last year.
Other companies in this space include Miso Robotics, which is behind Flippy, a burger-flipping robot; Botinkit, a cooking robot maker in China; and Chef Robotics in San Francisco.
“Cooking with Lynja” star Lynn Yamada Davis, the TikTok creator known as “the internet’s grandma” and beloved for her quirky, educational cooking content, has died.
Her youngest son and co-creator of her social media channels, Tim Davis, announced his mother’s death in videos posted online on Friday.
“I’m super sad to inform you that unfortunately, Linda, my mom, has passed away,” Tim Davis said.
Tim Davis told the New York Times that his mother asked him to continue posting unreleased content after her death, which is why her account remained active this month.
In the most recent video, Tim Davis showed viewers photos of his mother throughout her life.
