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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

ArticulATE 2021

Announcing the ArticulATE 2021 Agenda: FedEx, Manna, Gatik and More

Our second ArticulATE food robotics and automation summit is just a little more than a week away, and at the risk of sounding immodest, we have put together a stellar show. The speakers are all lined up and the agenda has been set. And we’re excited to share both with you today!

The show is May 18 and being held virtually on the Hopin platform (so you can attend from the comfort of your own home in your pajamas, if you like). Check out the lineup and get your ticket today.

ARTICULATE 2021 AGENDA

Crops and Robots: How Automation is Changing Agriculture
Farm work is hard work. Learn how autonomous robots can take over dangerous jobs and AI can help bring more efficiency to our food supply chain.
Speaking:
Louisa Burwood-Taylor, Head of Media and Research, Editor, AgFunder
Suma Reddy, CEO, Future Acres

A Conversation with FedEx
There is perhaps no name more synonomous with reliable delivery than FedEx. We’ll hear how the storied brand is using robotics to automate the last mile.
Speaking:
Aaron Prather, Senior Technical Advisor, FedEx

A Demonstration of Moley’s Kitchen Robot
The house of the future is here, at least in the kitchen, thanks to this fully autonomous cooking robot
Speaking:
Mark Oleynik, Founder, Moley Robotics

Look! Up in the Sky! Drone Delivery is Getting Real
Drone delivery promises to be the fastest way to get your hot meal delivered. What have we learned from initial trials, and what can we expect when drones become mainstream?
Speaking:
Bobby Healy, Founder and CEO, Manna
Ryan Walsh, Co-Founder and CEO at Valqari

Order Up! The Future of Restaurant Robots
From commercial kitchens to standalone canteens, commercial kitchen robots can whip up hundreds of different meals. This will change not only restaurants but will enable any retailer to become their own restaurant.
Speaking:
Barney Wragg, Founder and CEO, Karakuri
Dibyananda Brahma, Vice President Growth at Mukunda Foods

No Register? No Problem. A Deep Dive on Cashierless Checkout
Why stand in line when you can walk into a store, grab what you want and leave? We take a look at the tech powering the new wave of cashierless checkout.
Speaking:
Stacey Higginbotham, Stacey on IoT
Trinh Le-Fiedler, Founder and CEO, Nomitri
Motilal Agrawal, Co-Founder & Chief Scientist, Zippin

A Live Demonstration of Alberts’ New Soup Robot
Yes, soup for you! Anytime you want it, thanks to Alberts new automated soup vending machine.
Speaking:
Glenn Mathijssen, Co-Founder and CEO, Alberts

Forget Last Mile, Let’s Get to Last Meter Delivery
There are plenty of robots that can get food to your front curb, but how about finding you inside an airport or mall? We get granular with the next phase of autonomous delivery.
Speaking:
Ritukar Vijay, Founder and CEO at Ottonomy.IO
Sven Mesecke, CEO, Sojourn

How Should Robots Roam City Streets? A Discussion with West Hollywood’s Mayor
There is a push and pull between innovation and implementation. West Hollywood has been a leader in autonomous delivery, and its Mayor will share what local governments consider as these robots roll out.
Speaking:
Lindsey Horvath, Mayor, West Hollywood

What Do VCs Like (and Dislike) in Food Robotics?
What stage of investment are food automation startups in right now? Where is the money headed? Have any investment bets paid off? Hear from the people who are cutting the checks.
Speaking:
Brita Rosenheim, Partner, Culterra Capital
Maggie Sprenger, Managing Director at Green Cow Venture Capital
Brian Frank, General Partner at FTW Ventures

Ruggedizing Robots for Imperfect Conditions
Right now, self-driving vehicle startups test their tech in sunny places like Arizona and Texas. But eventually autonomous vehicles will encounter stormy weather, literally. Here’s how they’ll handle it.
Speaking:
Ram Vasudevan, Co-Founder, Refraction AI
Richard Steiner, Head of Policy and Communications, Gatik

xRobotics Pizza Robot in action
Watch the xPizza One robot assemble the toppings on a pizza in real time.
Speaking:
Alena Tikovah, CMO xRobotics

The Ins and Outs of Successful Crowdfunding
Equity crowdfunding is a new path for startups to raise capital, but there’s no guarantee of success. Hear firsthand what it takes to run a successful equity crowdfunding campaign from startups who’ve done it.
Speaking:
Covahne Michaels, VP of Marketing, Blendid
Massimo Noja De Marco, CEO, Piestro

Restaurants in a Box. The New Smart Vending Machines
Armed with advanced robotics and smarts, vending machines are reshaping where, when and how we get fresh food and drink.
Speaking:
Andy Lin, Founder and CEO, Yo-Kai Express
Ben Winston, Co-Founder and CEO, Rotender
Mark Chaney, President and CEO, Winecab

Pick, Pack, Deliver. Grocery Ramps Up Robots
The pandemic caused grocery e-commerce to skyrocket. Check out the new automated systems that will get you your grocery orders faster than ever before.
Speaking:
Andrew Benzinger, Business Development Manager, AutoStore
Dmitry Shevelenko, Co-Founder and President, Tortoise
Jeff Wells, Senior Editor, Industry Dive

To Co-Brand or Not to Co-Brand Your Robot
Are you a food company, or a technology company? The answer will determine your best go-to market strategy.
Speaking:
Mara Behrens, Head of Marketing and Design, Chowbotics (now DoorDash)

What to Know When Rolling Out Self-Driving Vehicles
Autonomous pods, cars and trucks are coming to our public streets. But it will take a combination of technology and policy before they can become widespread.
Speaking:
Nancy Lee, Community Manager, PIX
Manuela Papadopol, CEO, Designated Driver

In addition to the great cast of speakers, we also want to thank all of the sponsors who are helping make ArticulATE 2021 possible: Wavemaker Labs, Sojourn, Picnic, RoboEatz, Gastronomous, YPC Technologies, Karakuri and Le Bread Xpress.

All that’s missing from our awesome day is you. So get your ticket today and be a part of the future of food automation!

More Headlines

Trigo Partners with German Grocer REWE for Cashierless Checkout Stores – The new store will be located in downtown Cologne, Germany.

Hwy Haul Raises $10M Series A to Modernize Produce Trucking – The startup’s cloud-based startup helps connect shippers with carriers without all the paperwork.

Red to Green Ep 3: Breaking Through Resistance to Cultured Meat – One the ways of getting people to accept lab-grown meat is by making the pitch personal.

Impossible Foods Granted Child Nutrition Label, Opening Up Public School Market – The volunteer authorized by the USDA will make it easier for schools to buy Impossible products.

What Shape Will Food Robots Take?

This is the web version of our weekly Spoon newsletter. Subscribe today to get all the best food tech news delivered direct to your inbox!

This issue of our newsletter is a bit a of a two-for-one. We’re going to talk about the future of food robotics and invite you to join us at our upcoming virtual summit — where we’ll talk about the future of food robotics.

But first, the news.

There were three stories this week that, when taken together, help form the basis of the question, What will food robots look like as they become more mainstream? For now, we’re focusing on robots that serve food and drinks, and not on the totes and rails of grocery automation. Consider these three robots:

The Revolmatic is a machine, plain and simple. Hook it up to a keg and it will just crank out beer after beer after beer. The Revolmatic can be used bare bones as a bartenders assistant, or there’s a version with a contactless payment system, turning it into a vending machine. This type of brute force pouring could definitely come in handy selling drinks at high-traffic locations like a beer garden, stadium or festival.

Piestro is making a standalone machine that can make a pizza in three minutes and hold up to nine pizzas in smart lockers for pickup. While it is a big, enclosed kiosk and makes food quickly, the clear glass allows users to watch the pizza being made adding a theatrical aspect to the process. It’s easy to imagine Piestros in an aiport or corporate campus or mall, cranking out pizzas all day.

Then there is Blue Hill, which is positioning itself as using robots to create a premium coffee experience you find at your local cafe. This robot purposely moves at the same speed and, thanks to advanced computer vision, the same movements as human baristas. This means the robot froths milk, high pours and even makes latte art just like a person. It aims to put some art into automation.

I like these three examples because they present a sort of Goldilocks scenario when it comes to food robotics. Revolmatic is all about brutalist speed and throughput, Piestro adds some colorful design and human interaction to its robot while still pumping out pies, and for Blue Hill, speed is sacrificed to make a more specialized product.

That’s not to say there is a “just right” size and shape for food robots. There is plenty of opportunity for a range of offerings. But it is worthwhile to think about what we are going to want from robots. Do we want co-bot assistants that just take over grunt work? Yes. Do we want good food produced quickly? Sometimes. Do we want artistry with our automation? Maybe? All of these answers are dependent on context (where they are located, how much time we have, etc.), and this is all new — we don’t know how users will react to robots.

But it’s these types of questions that we will be tackling at our upcoming ArticulATE food robotics and automation virtual summit on May 18. We will be talking with industry leaders about robotic topics like last (and middle) mile delivery, restaurant robots, restaurants that are robots, smart vending machines, autonomous driving, as well as the evolving rules and regulations around automation.

We have a ton of great speakers lined up including executives from FedEx, Manna drone delivery, Chowbotics/DoorDash, Zippin, Tortoise, Swisslog, Refraction AI, Gatik, Karakuri, Future Acres, Yo-Kai Express, Mukunda Foods, Pix Moving and many more.

The one day event is being held on the Hopin platform, so you can learn and participate in the day from the comfort of your own home. Get your ticket today!

Sophie’s Bionutrients Unveils The World’s First Plant-Based Burger Patty Made From Microalgae

More Headlines

Sophie’s Bionutrients Debuts New Burger Made from Microalgae – The Singapore based startup can currently make between 20 – 100 patties per week.

AeroFarms Partners With Hortifrut to Grow Blueberries, Caneberries Via Vertical Farming – The decision to grow blueberries and caneberries makes this project standout.

Squarespace Acquires Hospitality Management Platform Tock for $400M – Restaurants using Sqarespace for their website can now integrate order and guest management services.

Tracking the Next Generation of To-Go Concepts for Restaurants – This intelligence briefing for Spoon Plus looks at some some off-premises success stories to come out of the pandemic-era restaurant industry.

ArticulATE, Our Food Robotics and Automation Summit, Returns May 18

We here at The Spoon are pleased as punch to announce the return of ArticulATE, our food robotics and automation summit. The virtual event will be held via Hopin on May 18th (get your tickets now!).

We held the first ArticulATE event back in 2019, with speakers and guests from across the startup, robotics, retail and restaurant landscape making the day fun, informative and best of all productive for those working in food automation.

Like everything else, the pandemic has altered the meal journey with retailers, restaurants, and most importantly, consumers. Everyone is looking to create or experience more contactless delivery and shopping. As a result, foodservice operators and grocery retailers are accelerating their interest in (and spending more money on) automation tools.

ArticulATE will spend a whole day examining the technology and innovation automating the future of food including:

  • Delivery robots
  • Automated grocery fulfillment
  • Cooking robots
  • Drone delivery
  • Smart vending services
  • Cashierless checkout
  • Autonomous driving
  • New business opportunities
  • Venture funding in automation
  • And so much more

We’ve already got a ton of great speakers lined up that we’ll be announcing soon, along with an agenda for the day. If you’re a startup or retailer or restaurant doing something amazing with automation and want to speak, drop us a line and let us know. If you’d like to sponsor the event, we have opportunities to get your message out that way as well.

Most of all though, if you are at all interested in the future of food automation and robotics, this is the one event this year you should attend. Best of all, you can do it from the comfort of your couch. And if you live in the right place, maybe you can have a robot deliver you a business lunch.