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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Robotics, AI & Data

Orders for Food and Consumer Goods Robots Grew 56 Percent Last Year

Often when we write about the growth in food robotics, it’s based on anecdotal data. For example, over the past year robot startups have told us that thanks to COVID-19, they’ve seen a surge in demand.

Now, thanks to the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), we have some hard numbers to reaffirm what we’ve already been reporting. The A3 announced yesterday that for the first time last year, orders of robots for non-automotive purposes surpassed automotive robot orders. According to the press announcement, sales of robotic units in North America in 2020 were up 3.5 percent over sales in 2019. North American companies ordered 31,044 robotic units at a value of $1.572 billion last year.

For our specific purposes here at The Spoon, the A3 said that orders for food and consumer goods robots grew by 56 percent in 2020. And not only were more robots being ordered for the food sector, they were being used for higher-level tasks. Mark Joppru, Vice President, Consumer Segment & Service Robotics, US ABB Robotics and Machine Automation, said in the A3 press release:

In food applications, for example, where robots were traditionally used to automate simpler processes like case loading, they are increasingly being commissioned for higher value processes, like directly preparing food, resulting in improvements to food safety and hygiene. While these trends have existed for several years, COVID has changed perceptions and priorities for customers, accelerating the adoption of robotic automation.

This echoes what we’ve been hearing from food robot startups throughout the pandemic. Cleanliness and hygiene are the new priorities for the companies buying food robots. Robots provide a contactless way of preparing, ordering and delivering food, create more social distance in kitchens and can help alleviate staffing issues.

Just as important, robots are getting more sophisticated and, as Joppru points out, able to complete higher value tasks. Flippy is working the fryers at White Castle. Woowa Brothers delivery bots are integrating with elevator and security systems to increase navigation within buildings. And robot kiosks like RoboEatz can prepare 1,000 meals before needing a human to refill the ingredients.

Given the constant stream of robot news we’re been writing, it’s not too hard to imagine that this time next year, we’ll be writing about record growth for the industry in 2021.

PizzaForno Bringing its Pizza Vending Machines to the U.S. Next Month

Like so many other startups in the space, PizzaForno doesn’t like to call its product a “vending machine.” That term carries with it a lot of baggage, conjuring up coils of stale snacks. Instead, the company makes “Automated Pizza Ovens.” But regardless of what you call it, PizzaForno is bringing its 24-hour, unattended pizza kiosk to the U.S. next month.

Based near Toronto, Canada, PizzaForno has 25 such machines in operation already in Ontario. They work pretty much as you’d expect. Customers walk up to the machine, place an order through the touchscreen (a mobile app is forthcoming) and roughly twelve dollars and two minutes later, a 12 inch piping hot pizza is dispensed.

While PizzaForno, the company, is based in Canada, it’s using technology from an undisclosed company in France. Each machine holds 70 pre-made pizzas (typically eight different varieties), and features a convection technology that blast hot air to cook the pizza.

PizzaForno’s go-to market is a little different from other players in the automated pizza space. Piestro is building its own brand and licensed pizza vending robots, and API Tech makes machines that are then branded by a third party. PizzaForno wants to build its own food brand and is using a licensing model to expand its presence.

Licensees will pay between $115,000 – $125,000 for the machine, materials and territorial rights. They will then negotiate with landlords for location space, and handle maintenance, operational and logistical matters. The first machine U.S. will be placed in Jackson, Michigan in February.

As I wrote last year, smart vending machines are going through a re-invention, one partly spurred on by the global pandemic that has consumers wanting contactless food retail experiences. Vending machines keep ingredients safe from outside germs, don’t require humans to serve up food, and can operate around the clock.

But it’s also a reinvention because the food these machines make is just better than it used to be. It’s no longer packaged snacks. Instead, it is hot, fresh food created by what is essentially a small restaurant-in-a-box. Ramen, salad, bowl foods — vending machines are making it all these days.

Pizza in particular is turning into a hot sub-category for automated vending services. In addition to Piestro and API Tech, Basil Street has its “Automated Pizza Kitchen” and Bake Xpress offers personal pizzas among its baked goods.

The question for PizzaForno is whether its licensee approach will work. Pizza vending machines are still a relatively new concept. People immediately know what they’d get from a Domino’s Pizza vending machine, regardless of who made the actual machine. And while it isn’t exactly hard to figure out what PizzaForno makes, consumers won’t be familiar with the brand or the product. Hungry folks may be more hesitant to try it — even though it comes out of an “automated pizza oven.”

UPDATE: Though PizzaForno reps used the term “franchise” during my call with them, the company followed up to say the correct term was “license.” Also, the location of the first Michigan machine changed after the publication of this article. It has been updated to reflect these changes.

Foodspace is Using AI to Create Better CPG Data So You Find That Spicy Cheese Faster

You ever search for a food product online or at the grocery store but can’t find that exact something that perfectly matches your taste, dietary or nutritional preferences? You’re not alone. One of the big reasons searching for food products can be so frustrating is they are often bucketed under data categories that are holdovers from existing category management systems built fifteen or twenty years ago.

A new startup called Foodspace wants to eliminate this annoying experience by helping the CPG and food retail industry update their old-school category management systems with technology that makes sure that every conceivable product attribute a consumer may be searching for is documented and assigned to products headed to a physical or digital shelf.

The Boston-based startup plans on doing that by using machine vision technology that analyzes scanned images of new product packaging introduced by CPG manufacturers and uses AI to synthesize and assign attributes based on its understanding of the product packaging and label data. The attributes go beyond the typical high-level product categories such as organic or gluten free, and factors in things such as sensory preferences (creamy, grainy, etc) and consumer taste and lifestyle archetypes. All told, Foodspace’s system can assign nearly three thousand different attributes to a product.

The end result should be faster, more personalized searches for consumers. If, for example, a person who likes cheese, loves spicy food, and has a gluten allergy heads to the deli section of an online grocery store, they shouldn’t have to drill down five categories deep within the deli category to find that gluten-free habanero cheddar. With Foodspace’s AI-powered synthesis and matching of different attributes, a consumer finds a product match much faster, perhaps almost immediately, depending on the understanding the online grocer has about the shopper.

Of course, this move towards more granular, highly-consumer centric data is something that CPG and retail industries recognize is important, but have been slow to evolve away from because of the huge magnitude of switching towards systems that have thousands of product attributes. The Food Industry Association (which goes under the acronym FMI), has been working on a new framework called Shopper Centric Retailing that would update product information in the more detailed way, and this week at FMI’s annual midwinter meeting, the industry consultant who developed Shopper Centric Retailing framework, Winston Weber, announced Foodspace as a “premier” strategic solution partner to help food product companies transition their products to the new format.

In short, Weber sees Foodspace’s technology as an enabling platform to help food brands migrate to the future.

Foodspace’s technology is “helping translate products in the online space, to the benefit of brands, retailers and the end consumers,” said Weber CEO and namesake Win Weber in the press release. “Their technology is the conduit for which the Shopper-Centric Retailing business model can optimize consumer satisfaction.”

As I thought about better product data that could personalize my food product searches, I started to wonder if this could help usher in the personalized food profile concept that I’ve been thinking about ever since I heard Mike Lee talk about the idea at Smart Kitchen Summit in 2017.

Foodspace CEO Ayo Oshinaike thinks so. “The universal data set that enables that is not there,” Oshinaike told me via Zoom. “That’s the piece that’s in the middle that Foodspace is trying to solve with the breaking down of the information accuracy and how we’re able to relate products to consumers.”

Walmart Scaling its Automated Fulfillment with Alert Innovation, Dematic and Fabric

Walmart announced today that it is ramping up its use of automated centers to fulfill online grocery orders. The company said it is already planning “dozens” of locations with “many more to come.”

Automated fulfillment centers use robotics to assemble items for incoming orders. The result is a faster turnaround for customer delivery or pickup.

According to a corporate blog post announcing the news:

[Walmart will] be building local fulfillment centers with various technology partners, including Alert Innovation, Dematic and Fabric. With these partners, we’ll be testing different orientations and add-on innovations to understand what works best in different environments. For example, in some locations, we’ll be adding on to our stores. In others, the fulfillment centers will sit inside the existing store footprint.

At its Salem, New Hampshire location, Walmart had piloted Alert Innovation’s automated fulfillment technology back in 2019. Walmart didn’t explain why has chosen three different solutions going forward, though if the retailer is going all-in on automated fulfillment, one company may not have been able to scale up quickly enough. We do know that Fabric specializes in building automated fulfillment centers in small, non-traditional spaces, and Walmart said its rollout would test different automated fulfillment configurations.

After a slow burn for the past few years, automated fulfillment is becoming hot with grocers in 2021. FreshDirect is also using Fabric’s solution for a fulfillment center in the Washington D.C. area. Albertsons is expanding its use of Takeoff Technology’s micro-fulfillment. Dematic is being used in Amazon’s grocery stores. H-E-B is using Swisslog. And Kroger is set to open up the first of its planned 20 automated customer fulfillment centers this year.

The reason for this burst in robotic fulfillment activity is the pandemic. COVID-19-related fears pushed people into record amounts of online grocery shopping last year. While a vaccine is being deployed, people have developed new habits, and online grocery shopping is expected to take up 21.5 percent of total grocery sales by 2025.

As such, retailers need to increase their throughput now to retain customer loyalty. Faster turnaround means more slots available for curbside pickup and delivery. Walmart may not have found inventory counting robots on its floors particularly efficient, but it seems to believe robots in the backroom building out orders is.

Starship Raises Another $17M, Adds UCLA and Announces its Millionth Delivery

Delivery robot company Starship announced today that it has raised an additional $17 million in funding. Investors include TDK Ventures and Goodyear Ventures, and this brings the total amount raised by Starship to $102 million.

As part of today’s announcement, Starship also said that it has now completed 1 million autonomous deliveries, and that its service will be rolling out to the campuses of UCLA and Bridgewater State University (Massachusetts).

Starship makes self-driving, cooler-sized, six-wheeled delivery robots that carry food, groceries and more. Starship started rolling out its robot delivery service to U.S. college campuses starting with George Mason university back in January of 2019. Since then, the company has added a steady stream of colleges to its ranks across the country over the ensuing years, and has started making grocery deliveries in Modesto, CA.

The COVID-19 pandemic has helped generate interest in delivery robots because of their contactless nature. You don’t have as much human-to-human interaction when the delivery agent is a robot. Robots can also operate all day (even taking the crummy shifts without complaining), and potentially bring down the cost of delivery, making it more affordable for more people.

The delivery robot space is heating up and there are a number of players getting into or scaling up their operations around the world. In the U.S., Kiwibot is operating in San Jose and, coincidentally, it announced earlier this month that it would be expanding to Los Angeles (where Postmates’ Serve robot already works). Yandex is operating food delivery bots in Moscow. Woowa Brothers is making deliveries in Seoul, South Korea. And a newcomer called Ottonomy is just starting to bring its robots to market here in the U.S.

The delivery robots aren’t coming, they are already here.

Ukko Raises $40M to Fight Food Allergies and Develop its Good Gluten

Ukko, a biotech company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to develop food and therapeutics that fight food allergies, announced today that it has raised a $40 million Series B round of funding. The round was led by Leaps by Bayer (the impact investment arm of Bayer), with participation from Continental Grain Company, PeakBridge Ventures, Skyviews Life Science and Fall Line Capital. Existing investors including Khosla Ventures and TIME Ventures, the investment fund of Marc Benioff, participated as well.

This brings the total amount of funding raised by Ukko to $47.7 million dollars. According to the press announcement, the new funding will allow Tel Aviv, Israel-based Ukko to enter into clinical trials for its investigational therapeutic for peanut allergies and, more relevant for our purposes, accelerate development of the company’s proprietary gluten.

Simply speaking, Ukko uses its AI platform to analyze patient data to map how an allergen triggers a reaction in the body. With that information, Ukko breaks down the gluten protein to its component level and gets rids of the bad parts that cause allergic reactions. It keeps the good parts. Ukko then creates this new good gluten either by genetically modifying wheat plants or fermenting yeast (or some other applicable base cell) to grow it in a bioreactor.

The result, Ukko Co-Founder and CEO Anat Binur told me by phone this week, is a gluten that stretches and bakes and has all the biophysical aspects of gluten, and can be eaten by people with gluten sensitivities and celiac disease. This, in turn, means that gluten-sensitive people don’t need to sacrifice quality when enjoying different types of baked goods.

At least, that’s the plan. Binur said that some of the company’s new funds will go towards clinical trials of its gluten and getting the product through all the safety protocols and to the point of commercialization.

Once Ukko’s gluten reaches the commercialization stage, Binur said that there are a number of options for how it comes to market. Ukko could sell its own gluten, which could be added to gluten-free starches (like almonds or rice). Alternatively, the company could sell its own gluten flour as an ingredient to food companies and restaurants/bakeries, or create its own line of branded gluten-free flour to be sold on store shelves. Or Ukko could pursue some combination of all three.

By one estimate from Grand View Research, the gluten-free products market was valued at $21.61 billion in 2019, and projected to grow at a CAGR of 9.2 percent through 2027. So there is plenty of market opportunity just in gluten for Ukko.

But Ukko’s platform can be applied to any food allergy. As noted, the company is developing therapuetics for peanut allergies, but Ukko’s tech could be used for dairy allergies, soy allergies, egg allergies, etc. Creating replacement foods from the ground up that have the same nutrition and behave like the original could help alleviate a lot of sickness and save lives.

Ottonomy’s Delivery Robot Drops Food at Your Door and Indoors

There are a few common threads among most delivery robot startups like Starship, Kiwibot and Postmates: They are all using cooler-sized rover ‘bots. Each of their robots has just one cargo compartment. And they are all focused on outdoor delivery. This is where Ottonomy aims to separate itself from the rest of the pack.

Yes, Ottonomy makes rover robots like those other players. Ottonomy’s four-wheeled robot is twice the size of Starship’s robot, has autonomous driving capabilities, and can carry 40 to 45 kg (88 to 100 lbs.). But Ottonomy’s approach to delivery is a little different.

First, Ottonomy’s robot has two compartments, allowing it to make two separate deliveries during a single trip. This means the robot can generate more revenue per trip because it doesn’t have to return to a restaurant or market after every single drop-off.

More important, however, is where Ottonomy will make those deliveries. In addition to making last-mile deliveries, Ottonomy robots will make deliveries indoors. Think large transit hubs like airports or shopping malls. So, for example, a consumer waiting at an airport could order a meal from a participating airport restaurant and have it brought directly to them, wherever they are inside.

Ottonomy Co-Founder and CEO, Rutikar Vijay told me by phone this week that his robots can accomplish this indoor delivery because they do not rely as heavily on GPS to get around. The robots just need to map out the space once, and can then start making deliveries (Ottonomy robots cannot, however ride escalators or elevators).

In addition to opening up a new delivery market, making indoor deliveries could also be an easier path to market for Ottonomy. Unlike Kiwibot, which uses humans to plot delivery routes on public sidewalks, Ottonomy, as its name indicates, is all-in on autonomous driving (though there is still someone monitoring the robot). States and cities are all developing their own rules around autonomous delivery robots with varying levels of restrictions (which streets, operation house, whether a human needs to accompany the robot, etc.). Ottonomy isn’t avoiding outdoor deliveries in the U.S., but by going indoors and off city sidewalks, it can sidestep dealing with the patchwork of regulation and start generating revenue right away.

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has kept most people from going to airports or congregating in large indoor areas, at some point we will again, and chances are good that robots will join us. In addition to Ottonomy, Cheetah Mobile in China has its FANBOT, which is basically a mobile vending machine that roams around hotel lobbies and cinemas.

That pandemic has also spurred more interest in robot delivery because of their contactless nature. Not only do they reduce a vector of human-to-human transmission, robots provide an additional method of delivery, which is more important than ever to restaurants.

Ottonomy has already been making deliveries in India and did a pilot last fall in an undisclosed transit hub. Vijay didn’t disclose pricing, but said that the company is exploring both a straight up robotics-as-a-service business model as well as one that includes revenue sharing.

Miso Robotics Equity Crowdfunds $17M, Extends Campaign to Raise $30M

Miso Robotics, the company behind Flippy the cooking robot, announced today that it raised $17 million during its equity crowdfunding campaign from April through November of last year.

In its press announcement, Miso said that its campaign was the highest-grossing technology deal ever on the SeedInvest equity crowdfunding platform. The $17 million was only a little more than half of the $30 million the company had intended to raise, but Miso will be extending this equity crowdfunded Series C round into this year to try and hit that $30 million milestone. Miso has previously raised $15 million in financing and $3.3 million in venture debt.

Miso’s crowdfunding came during a tumultuous time for the restaurant industry, and running an equity campaign during a global pandemic was both bad and fortuitous for the food robotics company. On the one hand, COVID-19 decimated the restaurant industry, shuttering thousands of restaurants and limiting Miso’s potential customer base. Stadiums, where Flippy was already making in-roads as an automated fry cook, were also shut down.

But this crisis also meant opportunity for Miso. While many restaurants were closed, deep pocketed QSRs were able to weather the tumult and were in more of a position to afford Flippy. In a high-profile example, after an initial pilot in July of last year, White Castle quickly expanded its use of Flippy to 11 of its locations.

Buck Jordan, Co-Founder, President & Chairman of Miso Robotics, told me by phone this week that the pandemic caused a “massive” increase of QSRs interest in Miso’s technology. According to Jordan, that interest is being driven by QSR staffing issues, the ability to create social distancing in the kitchen and the ability to transition workers into roles that more involve cleaning and fulfilling delivery and takeout orders.

With restaurants emphasizing delivery and takeout options, there will most likely be sustained interest in technology that can keep workers engaged with off-premises order fulfillment and customer service.

In addition to the funding news, Miso also announced the appointment of Mike Bell as CEO and Jake Brewer as Chief Strategy Officer. Bell was previously COO at Ordermark and President and COO at Bridg. Brewer was formerly VP of Restaurant Excellence at CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s.

Kroger Building Ocado-Powered Warehouse in Phoenix, AZ

Kroger announced on Friday that it will build out its next automated customer fulfillment center (CFC) in Phoenix, AZ. This marks Kroger’s first robot-powered warehouse in the U.S. Southwest region.

These CFCs use robotic technology from UK grocery Ocado (which Kroger is an investor in). Online orders are assembled automatically inside the center through a series of totes on rails, and packaged up for delivery.

Kroger announced a few years back that it would build out 20 such warehouses across the U.S., and has since started work on sites in a number of different locations including: Monroe, OH, Groveland, FL, Forest Park, GA, Dallas, TX, and Pleasant Prairie, WI, Frederick, MD, Romulus, MI, as well as the Pacific Northwest, Great Lakes and West Regions. The first Kroger CFC is expected to open in Monroe this year.

Ocado Robotic System For Kroger

Grocery e-commerce, which got a boost last year thanks to the pandemic, is expected to become the new normal for many shoppers. Online grocery is projected to grow over the coming years and take up 21.5 percent of overall grocery sales by 2025.

As such, grocery retailers are building out a variety of automated systems to keep up with that increased demand. While Kroger is building out these centralized delivery warehouses that serve large areas of customers, others are taking a more local approach. Albertsons built out micro-fulfillment centers in the backs of two of its Bay Area stores, and is expanding to more. And Texas grocery chain H-E-B is adding automated micro-fulfillment to a number of its locations.

Kroger’s CFCs are the opposite of “micro” fulfillment. The forthcoming Phoenix facility will be 200,000 sq. ft., and will open 24 months after groundbreaking to support customers across Arizona.

Cafe X Re-Opens SFO Robot Barista

Those of you still going to airports can once again grab a robot-made coffee at the San Francisco International Airport. Cafe X re-opened its automated barista kiosk in Terminal 3 at SFO earlier this week.

Cafe X had shuttered both of its airport locations (the other one was at the San Jose Airport) last year as the global COVID-19 pandemic decimated air travel. We reached Cafe X Founder and CEO, Henry Hu via Twitter today. He told us that the SFO location was actually closed by the airport because Terminal 3 was seeing so little use. Hu said SFO gave Cafe X the greenlight to re-open recently, as traffic there has ticked back up.

When we last spoke with Hu in August, he said that despite the SFO and San Jose airport closures, Cafe X was still in talks to place its robo-barista at a number of other airports. Airport installations had been a key go-to market strategy for automated vending services and kiosks like Cafe X and Briggo (which is now Costa Coffee). Briggo had even signed a partnership with SSP America to place its robotic baristas in 25 airports throughout 2020 and 2021.

But as noted, the pandemic closed off airports as high-volume locations. Automated food services had to look elsewhere for places where a lot of people want food and beverages quickly.

However, with multiple vaccines beginning to be distributed this year, we could actually see an increase in airport deals for automated vending companies. There will be a lot of pent up desire to travel as the population gets vaccinated, and those returning to the friendly skies will want/need a fresh hot cup of coffee. Cafe X’s robot barista can not only make a mean latte, it also does so in a more contactless way than traditional coffee shops. Perhaps this combination will help Cafe X take off.

Here are the Kitchen Robots We Saw at CES & Food Tech Live 2021

One thing I miss most about heading to Vegas every January for CES is walking the basement of the Sands convention center. There, in the startup area known as Eureka Park, I’ll wander for hours and get lost amongst thousands of exhibitors in search of a few undiscovered food tech gems.

I usually find a few and, since we’re talking CES, they sometimes come in the form of a food robot.

From there, I usually head across the street to Treasure Island where The Spoon has its own product showcase during CES week called Food Tech Live, where I can also get my fill of food robots while also doing such things as eating a cookie with my face on it.

While both CES and Food Tech Live didn’t take place in person in Sin City this year, that doesn’t mean there weren’t some cool food robots to check out at their virtual versions last week. Below is our roundup of home food robots I found at virtual CES and The Spoon’s annual first-of-the-year product showcase, Food Tech Live.

Moley Robotic Kitchen

Since 2015, the Moley robotic kitchen has captured the imagination of the tech journalists and robotics industry with its robot chef concept that can that can prepare full meals from prep to cook to clean up with a pair of articulating robot arms.

And while we’ve yet to actually see the Moley cook a full meal from start to finish, the system’s inventor told The Spoon that it’s finally on sale and will find its first home in 2021. The company, which had a virtual booth at CES 2021 and debuted a bunch of new highlight videos, will sell both a home and pro version of its robotic kitchen. Prices for the fully robotic kitchen will be about $335 thousand.

The Moley Robotic Kitchen System at CES 2021

Oliver

Else Labs Oliver is a single-pot cooking robot that dispenses fresh ingredients and automates the cooking process with the help of temperature sensing and machine vision capabilities.

Else Labs, which went on sale via Indiegogo last fall, was on display at Food Tech Live last week. The product’s inventor and company CEO Khalid Aboujassoum says the major difference between Oliver and other guided cooking appliances on the market is Oliver pretty much handles the entire cooking process for you.

“The Oliver can do unattended stovetop cooking,” Aboujassoum told me last fall when the product went on sale.

Oliver, the smart cooking robot

iWonderCook

The iWonderCook is a automated cooking machine that cooks one-pot meals. The meals are provided in the form of the company’s own meal kit service, which the user orders through the device’s touchscreen. From there, as can be seen in the video below, the user inserts a bowl, embeds the food “cartridge”, and then adjusts the amount of oil and water needed.

I haven’t gotten a chance to see the iWondercook in action or taste the food, I will say is the product’s reliance on its own meal kits might be a turn-off for some users.

iWONDERCOOK robotic chef does the cooking for you.

Yo-Kai Express Takumi

Technically the new Yo-Kai Express Takumi home ramen machine is something closer to a Keurig for food than a food robot, it’s worth looking at this machine given the company’s smart vending roots.

The Takumi, which debuted at Food Tech Live last week, follows Yo-Kai’s move into the home market with its home delivery service. The Takumi takes the frozen ramen bowls, which are centrally produced in Yo-Kai’s California facilities, and steams and reconstitutes the ramen in just a few minutes.

The company has plans to not only to start selling ramen to users in the office and home, but on the go with an autonomous ramen delivery cart.

Day With Yo Kai Final

Samsung Bot Handy

Samsung announced a trio of home robots aimed at helping humans around the house. The one that was most interesting when it comes to lending a hand in the kitchen was Bot Handy, a mobile bot with large articulating hand that can help with anything from pouring a glass of wine to doing the dishes.

It’s worth noting that Samsung – like many big consumer electronics brands – has a history of showing off cool new product prototypes at CES that are more conceptual than anything close to actually coming to market, including last year’s they showed off a Moley-kitchen style robot system. Let’s hope the Bot Handy is something the company delivers on.

Julia

The Julia is another single-pot home cooking robot that allows the user to set it and forget it for pretty much an entire meal. The Julia is made by a Nymble, an Indian-based startup with plans to start selling the product in 2021. Nymble CEO Raghav Gupta showed off the product at Food Tech Live, told us that they are expanding their alpha trial program in the United States in February.

ColdSnap

Like the Takumi, the ColdSnap isn’t quite a full-fledged food robot, but something closer to a Bartesian style automated appliance that makes cold ice cream (as well as frozen margaritas and smoothies). While we weren’t able to get our hands on the ColdSnap, the company gave CNET a hands-on preview of the appliance and the editors were impressed. The appliance, which is going to a fairly spending $500-1,000, reminds me of the Wim fro-yo appliance that never made it to market after an acqui-hire of the founding by Walmart.

Report: Uber Looking to Spin Off Postmates X Delivery Robot Biz

As part of its acquisition of Postmates last year, Uber got into the delivery robot business. Now, according to a report in TechCrunch, Uber is planning to get out of the robo-biz by spinning off Postmates X (the robotics division of the company) into a separate company.

From TechCrunch:

Postmates X, the robotics division of the on-demand delivery startup that Uber acquired last year for $2.65 billion, is seeking investors in its bid to become a separate company, according to several people familiar with the plans.

The new spinout is being called Serve Robotics, named after the companies’ autonomous, cooler-sized Serve robot, which was making deliveries in Los Angeles throughout much of 2020. More recently, Postmates Serve was enlisted by the Pink Dot market to make deliveries in West Hollywood.

TechCrunch reports that Serve Robotics would retain the IP and assets, and Uber would keep a 25 percent stake in the company.

Given how the COVID-19 pandemic is pushing restaurants and grocers to adopt more contactless delivery methods, it may seem like an odd time for Uber to get out of the delivery robot business.

As we’ve been chronicling, autonomous delivery robots are popping up all over the globe. Starship has been doing deliveries on college campuses for more than a year, and expanded to grocery delivery in Modesto, CA. Kiwibot partnered with the City of San Jose for robot restaurant deliveries there. Then there’s Yandex in Russia, Delivers AI in Turkey, and Woowa Brothers in Seoul, South Korea.

But as Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently explained on Kara Swisher’s Sway podcast, his company is in the networking business. Khosrowshahi doesn’t think Uber needs to create the technology uses, it just needs access to the best technology that allows it to facilitate deliveries and ridesharing. That’s one reason Uber offloaded its autonomous driving unit at the end of last year.

While the use of robotics is definitely on the rise around the world, there are still a lot of hurdles to overcome before they become mainstream. Regulations and production scale are two biggies. Right now there are a patchwork of rules around autonomous delivery that vary from city to city and state to state. Even as those get ironed out, scaling robots to a number where we see them across the country is still a huge undertaking.

Uber pushing those issues off on to a separate company means Uber can focus more on its own delivery and ridesharing businesses. Uber can then just license the robot technology to facilitate its food delivery.