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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Robotics, AI & Data

Rotender is a Drink Making Robot Built for High-Volume Bars

I worked at a nightclub in college and one thing I remember from that experience was the sheer volume of drinks bartenders poured each night. Our job wasn’t about fancy bottle flipping a la Cocktail, just getting drinks to the consumers and their money in the till.

This high-volume approach is what’s driving the team at Rotender, which has built a robotic vending machine that serves drinks. Each Rotender holds 16 one-liter bottles and five different types of syrups (e.g., cranberry or orange juice), has an automated soda gun and makes it own ice. Once up and running, the Rotender can serve a drink in 15 seconds and make more than 350 drinks before needing to be refilled.

Rather than sitting behind the bar like SomaBar, the Rotender is actually meant to be installed where consumers can use it. A customer uses their mobile phone to scan a QR code on the Rotender, which brings up the drink menu in the Rotender app. Users select their drink, pay for it, place their glass in the machine and then scan a QR code again to ensure that they are by the machine to pick up their drink. Once that’s done, the Rotender mixes the drink and serves it.

Right now, Rotender relies on the venue to handle age verification, though the company is exploring existing software solutions to handle that. The machine also keeps track of how many drinks it serves each customer. Should a consumer order too many drinks in a single hour, Rotender can pause service to that individual so as not to over-serve them.

When we talk about robotics, there is typically a discussion around how robot-like any machine should look. Other robo-bartenders on the market serving drinks at Glacierfire in Iceland or The Tipsy Robot bar in Las Vegas use articulating arms to make the drinks. Rotender has instead forsaken this “robot” approach in favor of creating more of a straight up drink-making machine. As Rotender Co-Founder and CEO, Ben Winston explained to me by phone this week, the reason is speed.

Rotender is built to churn out drinks for high-volume locations. As such, the machine focuses on meat and potato drinks — rum and coke, gin and tonic, etc. More complicated drinks are left to the human staff at the bar.

By foresaking expensive articulating robotic arms, Winston also said that Rotender is a more economical option for bars. It costs $999 a month to lease a Rotender (a robotic arm on its own can cost tens of thousands of dollars). In addition to that lease, Rotender also adds a per drink charge that it determines with the venue.

Rotender is about to do a pilot with a bar in Los Angeles, and Winston said they can currently serve clients in California and Nevada. Sadly, though, the Rotender won’t be doing any Cocktail-style bottle flips.

Standard Cognition Raises $150M Series C for its Cashierless Checkout

Cashierless checkout startup Standard Cognition announced today that it has raised a $150 million Series C round of funding. The round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from existing investors CRV, EQT Ventures and TI Platform Management, along with new investors SK Networks and others. This brings the total amount of funding raised by Standard to $236 million.

Standard Cognition creates cashierless checkout experiences for retailers using a system of cameras, computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI). Once installed and integrated with a payment system, customers can walk in, grab what they want, and leave without needing to scan items or wait in a checkout line.

Shopping in seconds with Standard, the world's most advanced autonomous checkout solution

This round of funding is far and away the largest we’ve seen for a cashierless checkout startup. Similar startups that retrofit stores with cameras and AI include Grabango ($32 million), Trigo ($89 million), and Zippin ($12 million). Also worth mentioning is Accel Robotics, which raised $30 million from SoftBank the company, not SoftBank Vision Fund.

In its press announcement, Standard said this new funding will help the company scale up its solution. Standard said it has already been working with customers including Alimentation Couche-Tard, Inc. (parent company of global convenience store brand “Circle K”) and Compass Group. Standard said it will outfit “hundreds” of checkout-free stores this year and has a goal of more than 50,000 stores over the next five years.

It is an understatement to say that it’s been a busy year so far for cashierless checkout. Just today, cashierless startup AiFi announced a partnership with Dutch convenience store chain Wundermart that includes plans to open up 1,000 checkout-free stores. Previously, New Zealand-based IMAGR partnered with Japanese retailer H2O, Berlin-based Nomitri came out of stealth, and Zippin launched a checkout-free store in a hotel in Japan.

A big reason for all this activity (and investment) is the ongoing global pandemic. Retailers are looking for ways to alter the shopping experience in a COVID world, which includes reducing the amount of human-to-human interaction the happen at the store. Removing the cashier removes one vector of transmission, and removing the checkout line altogether means that fewer people congregate inside a store.

In other words, expect to see more cashierless checkout announcements (and investments) in the coming months.

AiFi and Wundermart Partner up for Cashierless Checkout Stores

AiFi is bringing its computer-vision based cashierless checkout technology to Amsterdam-based Wundermart‘s chain of convenience stores worldwide, the two companies announced today.

Wundermart currently operates 70 unattended “grab-and-go” convenience stores throughout Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. These stores are typically between 50 and 200 sq. ft. and located in hotels, offices and transportation hubs. While the stores themselves are unattended by staff, Wundermart shoppers currently need to manually scan each item and make their payment at a self-checkout kiosk.

Through this new partnership, Wundermart will incorporate AiFi’s camera-based checkout system. As shoppers enter a Wundermart store, they will need to scan the store app or swipe their credit card at a kiosk. Once inside, AiFi’s camera+computer vision system will automatically keep track of what people take and then charge them automatically as they leave the store — no product scanning needed.

In addition to its computer vision checkout, Wundermart will be implementing AiFi’s OASIS system, which uses computer vision and sensors to track products in the store for more automated inventory management.

Wundermart will also be integrating AiFi’s technology into its Wunderware SaaS package. Wunderware is sold to third-party retailers so they can create their own autonomous stores. According to today’s press announcement, Wundermart and Wunderware plan to open more than 1,000 locations equipped with AiFi’s technology.

The COVID pandemic is pushing retailers of all sizes to re-evaluate the number of touchpoints they have in their stores. Cashierless checkout provides a more frictionless shopping experience that reduces the amount of human-to-human interaction. Not only does it remove the cashier as a vector of viral transmission, but early data suggests that shoppers using cashierless systems spend less time in a store, so there are fewer people congregating in checkout lines and aisles.

In addition to more frictionless checkout, Wundermart said it will be using AiFi’s system to also learn how people are shopping inside their stores. While the company’s system doesn’t use facial or biometric data to track someone, it can analyze what items people pick up (and put back) to help a store operator determine how to most efficiently set up products.

Only a couple of months in and 2021 has already been a busy year for cashierless checkout. New Zealand-based IMAGR has launched its smart-cart solution with retailer H20 in Japan. German startup, Nomitri came out of stealth with its smartphone-centric, cashierless checkout. And Zippin launched an unattended convenience store at a hotel in Japan.

For its part, AiFi has said previously that it plans to have deployed 330 new and retrofitted autonomous stores by the end of 2021. With the Wundermart partnership, they are certainly on their way to achieving that goal.

Gatik Debuts Electric Version of its Autonomous Middle-Mile Delivery Truck

Gatik, which focuses on self-driving vehicles for middle-mile delivery, today announced its electrification strategy and introduced its new Electric Autonomous Box Truck.

The first of Gatik’s electric trucks will be Ford Transit 350 HDs that were developed in partnership with electric drive company Via Motors. The new trucks have an all-electric powertrain, a range of 120 miles and can charge in less than 1.5 hours.

Gatik’s self-driving vehicles handle middle mile delivery, meaning that they transports goods closer to a consumer, but not all the way to them. A typical middle-mile route might be between a warehouse and a store location, and Gatik’s trucks become, in essence, a self-driving conveyor belt between points. Since the trucks travel a fixed route, Gatik can eliminate some of the variables that come with self-driving technology. They don’t, for example, need to constantly calculate new routes through a bunch of different neighborhoods to people’s front doors.

Gatik has previously said that this limited scope makes it easier to get regulatory approval and therefore its self-driving trucks on the road. Walmart announced in December that the Gatik trucks on one of its Bentonville, Arkansas routes will be allowed to remove the safety driver altogether and go full driverless this year.

In December, Walmart also announced that it would be adding Gatik’s truck to a second delivery route between New Orleans and Metairie, LA. That route is where the first of Gatik’s electric trucks will be in operation starting this month.

Electrification of its vehicle fleet is actually a stated goal of Walmart as the giant retailer aims to reach zero emissions by 2040. In addition to fewer emissions, with a recharge time of just 1.5 hours, Gatik’s new electric vehicles can recharge as they are being unloaded and loaded allowing for continuous operation.

The middle mile isn’t the only area where Walmart is testing out electric, self-driving delivery. The retailer has also partnered with electric car maker Cruise to test autonomous grocery delivery in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Last- and middle-mile delivery may also begin to blur in new ways, thanks in part to automation. Walmart has indicated that the middle mile may include consumer pickup stations, allowing people who don’t live near a Walmart store to purchase items from the retailer and pick them up closer to their homes.

Ahold Delhaize Launching Automated Fulfillment Center in Philadelphia

Ahold Delhaize announced today that it is building out an automated fulfillment center in Philadelphia (hat tip to Winsight Grocery Business). When completed, this facility will be able to fulfill 15,000 online delivery orders a week.

This new fulfillment pilot will be powered by Peapod Digital Labs, Ahold Delhaize’s in-house e-commerce engine, and offered to customers of the Giant Co. market. Ahold Delhaize is also working with Swisslog’s AutoStore for the robotics and software systems for the automated fulfillment center.

This is not Ahold’s first trip to the robotic fulfillment center rodeo. The company owns a majority stake in FreshDirect, which is using Fabric for a Washington D.C.-area fulfillment center. And in 2018, the company announced it was working with Takeoff Technologies to create a number of micro-fulfillment centers for its retail brands including Stop & Shop, Food Lion and Giant Food. According to Winsight, Ahold said today more micro-fulfillment pilots are forthcoming.

Ahold Delhaize’s expanded use of automation is no surprise. Grocery e-commerce had a banner year in 2020, thanks in large part to the pandemic keeping people at home. Online grocery is expected to remain sticky with consumers even after the pandemic recedes with some projecting online grocery taking up 21.5 percent of total grocery sales by 2025.

As such, grocery retailers are investing in new ways of getting people their food faster. Kroger is building out a series of Ocado-powered automated fulfillment centers across the U.S. Walmart is planning to implement dozens of automated micro-fulfillment centers at its stores. And Albertsons is expanding the use of automated fulfillment as well.

Most of these, however have been announcements. We’ll need to watch this space in the coming months to see if automated fulfillment centers truly deliver on their promise of cost-effective, increased efficiency.

Bowery’s Founder, Irving Fain, on the Future of Vertical Farming

At one point in the not-so-distant past, vertical farming’s role in our future agricultural system was far from certain. Growing leafy greens in warehouse-like environments controlled by tech seemed like a compelling business, but one that had yet to prove itself either economically or as an important source of food for a growing world population.

That, at least, was a common sentiment Irving Fain, CEO and founder of Bowery, met with when he started his vertical farming company five years ago. “There was a bit of skepticism around it,” he told me over a call recently, suggesting that five years ago, there were a lot more “ifs” than “whens” in terms of vertical farming’s future.

Fain, Bowery, and the entire vertical farming industry get a much warmer reception nowadays. Investment dollars are pouring into the space. Around the world, companies, scientists, and food producers are using the method to not just supply upscale grocery stores with greens but experiment with breeds of produce, feed underserved populations, and grow food in non-arable regions. As Fain suggested when we spoke, the last 12 months seem to have turned those “ifs” into definite “whens.” 

Bowery’s last 12 months also illustrate this change. Fain said that Bowery went from under 100 retail locations about a year ago to nearly 700 right now, and will be in more than 1,000 “in the coming months.” Its produce is in a number of food retailers around the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, including Whole Foods Market, Giant Food, Stop & Shop, Walmart, and Weis Markets. And in 2020, the company experienced “more than 4x growth” with e-commerce partners.

While the pandemic is responsible for some of this popularity, Fain insists it is not the only reason for the eventful year. “It’s definitely bigger than the pandemic,” he said. “What you’re seeing is a food system that’s evolving and [people have a desire] to see transparency and traceability in the food system.” These, he says, are issues the traditional food supply chain isn’t really able to address right now, hence the opportunity for companies like Bowery, which effectively cut multiple steps out of the supply chain.

Bowery grows its greens (lettuces, herbs, and some custom blends) inside industrial spaces where crops are stacked vertically in trays and fed nutrients and water via a hydroponic system. Technology controls all elements of the farm, from the temperature inside to how much light each plants get. The company currently operates two farms, one in New Jersey and the other in Maryland. A third is planned for Pennsylvania.

Technology, in particular, is something Bowery has big plans for. On top of a retail expansion, Bowery also added some notable personnel to its staff, including Injong Rhee, formerly the Internet of Things VP at Google as well a chief technologist at Samsung. Having such technology chops onboard will be vital in order for Bowery to realize many of its ambitions around advanced automation, which has the potential to optimize many parts of the seed-to-store process for vertically grown greens. 

For example, Bowery’s farms are equipped with sensors and cameras that are constantly collecting data — “billions” of points, according to the company — that can be used to not just observe the current state of plant health but also predict the most optimal growing conditions for each crop. Elements like temperature, humidity levels, nutrient levels, and light intensity can all be adjusted, via the BoweryOS software, to create those optimal conditions. The end result is more consistent crop production, better yields, more flavorful food, and, ideally, a better nutritional profile for the greens compared to what conventional produce offers.

The system can also, through automation and AI, detect problems with plants. In a recent interview with Venture Beat, Bowery Chief Science Officer Henry Sztul used the example of butterhead lettuce yellowing at the edges during growth. Bowery’s system is technologically advanced enough at this point that it is starting to understand the conditions that create those yellowing edges. That foreknowledge, in turn, will allow growers to adjust the crop “recipe” (see above mixture of lights, temperature, etc.) to avoid the problem.

It took Bowery years to get to this point in terms of what its technology is capable of doing. “The system [for] indoor farming that you choose has a direct impact on the crops you’ll be able to grow, on the margins you’ll be able to generate, and on the return profile of the business itself,” said Fain. “And so being incredibly intentional and thoughtful about what technology you use is something we spent a lot of time on because it has an extraordinarily important economic impact.”

On a less technically complex note, controlled ag from Bowery and others also goes some way towards reinventing the supply food chain. Rather than greens being harvested in, say, Mexico and shipped via a complex distribution process all the way to Baltimore, they are packaged up at the farm and distributed to nearby retailers, usually those within a day’s drive “It is much more sustainable. It is much more efficient, and it’s more reliable, and those things have been important to consumers long before COVID,” said Fain.

Bowery will continue to innovate on both the technology and supply side of its business, as well as with the food itself. The company just launched a new specialty product line that will experiment with different flavors of greens and change frequently.

In terms of tech, Bowery’s latest farm, currently being built in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, will incorporate even more automation than the company’s two existing farms. That location is slated to open later in 2021. When it does, Bowery will be capable of serving nearly 50 million people within a 200-mile radius.

The company hopes to expand its geographic reach much wider some day, building farms near most major U.S. cities and beyond. Given the increased confidence in the vertical farming sector as a whole, now looks to be the optimal time to move towards those ambitions. 

Move Over, Isaac. Humanoid Robo-Bartender to Set Sail on Cruise Ship

It’s not just love that’s exciting and new on the cruise ship MSC Virtuosa. MSC Cruises announced yesterday that Rob, the humanoid, robotic bartender, is reporting for duty to pour drinks at the Virtuosa‘s Starship Club this spring (hat tip to Cruise Industry News).

Rob will be part of the futuristic integrated bar and entertainment experience offered by the Starship Club, which will also feature 3D holograms, immersive digital are and an infinity digital interactive table guests can use to explore space.

To grab a drink, guests will place their order in “vertical digital cockpits,” setting Rob to work. Rob’s articulating arms will mix and serve a range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Rob also speaks eight different languages (English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese) and can adjust according to the language a guest uses when placing an order. Rob also has an LED face to convey emotions, and presumably scowl because no one will tip a robot bartender.

Rob is not the only robo-bartender serving up drinks nowadays. Glacierfire in Iceland is a bar built around its robot bartender. In Spain, Macco Robotics‘ robot serves beer. And of course, there is the Tipsy Robot slinging drinks in Las Vegas.

What’s interesting about Rob is that MSC Cruises decided to go with a full-on humanoid robot, not just articulating arms. When your bar is called “The Starship Club,” it probably makes sense to have a bartender bot that looks like what people think of a robot. But for more high-volume locations like a nightclub, the theatrics of a smiling humanoid with articulating arms could be ditched in favor of a personality-less machine that is faster.

It also should be noted that by the time Rob debuts in April, the COVID-19 pandemic will still very much be a part of our everyday lives. As of now, the CDC recommends that all people avoid travel on cruise ships. Despite that warning, tons of people are signing up for sea vacations. Having a robot pour drinks means at least your bartender won’t get sick and won’t be a vector of transmission for other passengers.

For those who are both robot curious and brave enough to set sail, the Virtuosa will begin cruises in the Mediterranean in April before being deployed to Northern Europe in 2021.

Food Robots Are Coming to Dubai

We are on a mission at The Spoon to chronicle the rise of food robots as they pop up all over the world. Today, we spin our globe and land on Dubai, where a fully robotic cafe has been serving up drinks and delivery robots will soon be roaming the sidewalks.

Reuters has a story up this week about the Robo Cafe in Dubai, which, is exactly what you think it is: a fully autonomous eatery. The Robo Cafe has actually been in business since last year, and uses four different robots to pour drinks, grab food and bring all items to your table.

Located in what appears to be a shopping mall, the Robo Cafe has a barista bot to create coffee drinks, a bartender bot to make mocktails and juices, a food bot that grabs pastries and other prepared foods, and a cadre of waiter bots. Customers place orders via a touchscreen on the counter and the appropriate bot fulfills the order. Food and drinks are place on a waiter bot, which is a large, squat puck, which autonomously carries the the order to the customer. No humans needed (unless something breaks down).

Unlike the big robot restaurant complex run by Country Garden in China, the Robo Cafe is much smaller and appears to have more of a relaxed feel. The whole cafe is out in the open (no walls) and instead of tables, people belly up to a counter to order and enjoy their food and drink.

Later this year, however, customers may not even need to sit at the counter to enjoy their Robo Cafe coffee. The Khaleej Times reports that robot delivery startup, Delivers AI will start trialing its service in Dubai in Q3 of this year.

Delivers AI, is among the cohort of current startups using autonomous, cooler-sized robots to make food deliveries. The company, which is relatively young, is currently making deliveries in Istanbul, Turkey.

The pandemic has accelerated interest in robotics because of their contactless nature. With no humans working in the Robo Cafe, there is no human-to-human viral transmission. Same goes for those little delivery robots.

If you’re interested in learning more, you can check out my recent Delivery Robot Market Report that I wrote for our Spoon Plus subscription service. It outlines the key players in operation all over the world as well as their challenges and opportunities.

Zippin Launches Cashierless Checkout Store in Yokohama Techno Tower Hotel

Zippin announced today the launch of a checkout-free convenience store in the Yokohama Techno Tower Hotel in Japan. It was done in partnership with Fujitsu and the Koyo Group, and Zippin says this is the world’s first cashierless checkout store within a hotel.

The Green Leaves Plus store sells pre-packaged food, drinks and fresh bento boxes. It opened earlier this year as a pilot and is accessible to the public. Customers must first download the Green Leaves Plus mobile app and register their credit card information, after which they can then enter the store with a QR code displayed on the app. Customers can also use the biometric authentication that links palm vein and facial recognition with the mobile app. After this is submitted, users just need to swipe their palm to gain entrance to the store.

Once inside, shoppers just grab what they want and go. Zippin’s combination of cameras and shelf sensors automatically keep track of what people take and automatically charge them upon leaving the store. Zippin said that based on early analytics shoppers are spending an average of just 113 seconds inside the Green Leaves Plus store.

Zippin and Fujitsu announced their partnership back in December of last year. Fujitsu is the exclusive distributor of Zippin’s cashierless checkout system, and adds its biometric authentication layer.

This first Green Leaves Plus store in the Yokohama Techno Tower could be just the beginning for Zippin in Japan. In addition to hotels, the Koyo Group operates convenience stores and restaurants in more than 500 hospitals, and from the press announcement emailed to The Spoon, Green Leaves Plus is part of Koyo’s multiphase expansion plan to create new c-store concepts for hospitals.

Zippin isn’t alone in bringing cashierless checkout to Japan. New Zealand based-IMAGR has partnered with Japanese retailer H2O to install smart shopping carts at three locations across Tokyo and Osaka.

The pandemic has pushed retailers towards cashierless checkout solutions as they look to reduce human-to-human contact. As such, we’ll be seeing a lot more cashierless checkout stores opening around the world.

DoorDash Acquires Salad Robot Maker Chowbotics

Third party delivery service DoorDash has acquired Chowbotics, the company behind salad-making robot Sally. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Chowbotics had raised nearly $21 million in funding since its founding in 2014.

The first question that pops to mind is, Why? Chowbotics’ technology is decidely stationary. Its robot is installed at a location and makes salads, yogurt bowls and more for people that come to it. DoorDash is a company built on mobility, getting food and other goods from other places to you.

Representatives from neither company were made available to comment.

The Wall Street Journal, which appears to have scooped the announcement earlier today wrote how a DoorDash+Chowbotics combo could work:

Ideas include using the technology to help restaurants expand their menu—such as enabling a pizzeria to offer salads—or to allow a salad bar to try out new locations—a kiosk at an airport, for instance—without the need for more manpower.

One of the big selling points of modern, automated vending machines is that they create, essentially, a restaurant in a box that can be placed anywhere. Chowbotics has co-branded machines with regional restaurant chain Saladworks, for example. DoorDash, with its vast marketplace of restaurants, could leverage those relationships to get co-branded Chowbotics machines in airports, hospitals and other high-traffic locations. Sally itself is versatile, holding 22 ingredients, so it could be easily adapted to different menus.

It’s not too hard to think DoorDash could also install Sallys at their own DashMart delivery-only chain of convenience stores to offer fresh food for delivery along with snacks and sundries.

But the new relationship could work in the other direction. Since the pandemic shut down salad bars, Chowbotics has seen increased interest from grocery retailers. DoorDash could use this as a wedge to get co-branded restaurant Sallys into retail and expand DoorDash’s grocery delivery ambitions.

Or, and this is a little more out there, DoorDash could be working on an autonomous mobile vending unit similar to what Yo-Kai Express is launching soon. A self-driving vending machine could travel around college and corporate campuses being hailed by hungry students and workers.

At the end of the day, the one thing DoorDash does give Chowbotics is scale. DoorDash is a publicly traded company with deep pockets and the largest marketshare of third-party delivery in the U.S. This means Chowbotics can focus on its technology and less on business development.

As they get more technologically advanced, we’re seeing more applications for vending machines. They are selling hot ramen, fresh made pizza, and even fresh dairy on farms. You can learn all about the industry in my Spoon+ market report The Great Vending Reinvention: The Spoon’s Smart Vending Machine Market Report (subscription required).

Berlin: Nomitri Moves Cashierless Checkout to Your Cart-Mounted Smartphone

When it comes to cashierless checkout for retail, there is a host of startups offering a number of different solutions. Grabango and Zippin install banks of cameras in stores and use computer vision and AI to keep track of purchases. Caper and IMAGR move the cameras and AI to smart shopping carts. And now Nomitri is pushing all that cashierless checkout tech to your mobile phone.

Founded in 2019 and based in Berlin, Germany, Nomitri is just now coming out of stealth mode. The company provides retailers with a special mount that affixes to a shopping cart and holds a mobile phone. Shoppers download and install the Nomitri app on their phone and place it in the holder with the camera facing into the cart Users then scan a food item’s barcode with the phone’s camera as it is placed in the cart and Nomitri’s software keeps a running total of what the shopper is getting. (Produce and bulk items are weighed on special scales that produce a sticker with a barcode that is scanned.)

The Nomitri app uses computer vision and AI to understand what is in the cart at all times. So if you try to slip something in there without scanning it, Nomitri notices and alerts you to either scan the item or remove it. Once you’re done shopping, Nomitri tallies up your total. The store can either integrate Nomitri into its existing checkout lanes, or set up new ones for a more frictionless checkout experience using Apple Pay or similar e-payment systems.

Nomitri Product Demo - Visual AI for Retailers

Trinh Le-Fiedler, Founder and CEO of Nomitri, explained to me by phone this week that all of the computer vision and AI is happening in the app itself. So there isn’t any extra computing power that needs to happen at the store, nor is there ongoing communication with a cloud service as people shop.

Le-Fielder said that ideally all of this cashierless checkout will happen on a Nomitri-branded app. That way a user just needs to download one app to shop at different Nomitri-powered stores. But she also admitted that retailers may want to retain that customer relationship and sales data, so white label versions of the app could also be created.

Nomitri’s solution is similar to Israel-based Shopic, which also pushes all the cashierless checkout tech to a user’s mobile phone. Shopic also has a component added to shopping carts to monitor what goes in them to help deter theft. Le-Fielder said that Nomitri’s solution is currently being tested by two different retailers in Europe.

All of these solutions from Grabango, Caper, Nomitri et al. are coming to market around the same time, giving retailers plenty of options. Which one(s) will they choose? A full retrofit like Grabango’s requires a lot of up-front work, but it can also provide inventory management services (like if items are misplaced on the wrong shelf). Smart carts like Caper’s don’t require a store build out, but require getting a fleet of entirely new shopping carts. Nomitri is carving out its own niche because it allows retailers to transform their existing carts into smart carts with the simple addition of a phone holder.

Whatever the solution, we’re going to see a lot more cashierless options being adopted by retailers as the technology matures and stores look for ways to reduce human-to-human interaction in a post-COVID world.

Is the College Market Back in Session? Yo-Kai Express Installs Machines at U. of Arizona

Yo-Kai Express is heading off to college to feed hot ramen to hungry students. Over the weekend, company founder and CEO Andy Lin posted a picture on Linkedin of Yo-Kai’s newest vending machine installation at the University of Arizona.

In a follow up email sent to The Spoon, Yo-Kai COO Amanda Tsung said that the company now has 25 machines live. The hot ramen vending kiosks are located across corporate campuses, hotels, retail locations, airports and now, colleges. The University of Arizona will actually be getting two additional Yo-Kais once students and faculty return.

In addition to the University of Arizona, Yo-Kai has installations going in at the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center Parnassus and the University of San Diego. Machines will accept student dining programs as a form a payment.

College campuses were becoming quite the hot spot for automated vending machines like Chowbotics and Blendid prior to the pandemic. Colleges are a good target location for unattended vending machines because they have a sizable population of students that don’t necessarily constrain their mealtimes to normal daylight hours. Vending machines can operate around the clock, and have the ability nowadays to serve up pretty complex food like ramen and grain bowls.

Yo-Kai could be a canary in the coalmine — a sign that the college campus market could be back in play for automated vending companies. With overall infection rates in the U.S. declining (knocks on wood) and vaccine efforts ramping up, students going back to college in the fall could mark a return to “normal” (whatever that will actually mean).

Relatedly, last month the San Francisco Airport gave the go-ahead to Cafe X to reopen its robot barista in the Terminal 3 location as foot traffic there ticked back up. Airports, too, could once again be a more thriving location for vending machines as travel increases.

For those vending startups that have successfully weathered the COVID-19 storm thus far, this should be welcome news that more opportunities lie ahead.