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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Robotics, AI & Data

Exclusive: Zippin Raises $12M Series A, Announces Cashierless “Cube” Store-in-a-Box

Zippin, a startup creating cashierless checkout experiences for retailers, announced today that it has raised a $12 million Series A round of funding led by Evolv Ventures, the venture fund backed by Kraft Heinz. Other investors include SAP.iO, Scrum Ventures, Arca Continental, and Nomura Research Institute and NTT DOCOMO Ventures from Japan.

Zippin is one of many companies looking to retrofit retailers such as supermarkets with technology to facilitate grab-and-go shopping with no checkout lines. Unlike most of its competition, Zippin doesn’t just rely on cameras and AI to keep track of what people pick up (and put back) while shopping. It also employs shelf-sensors for what it says is a more accurate analysis of what people take and keep as they walk out the door.

As part of today’s announcement, Zippin also said that it is making its technology more portable and accessible to retailers with the introduction of the Zippin Cube. The Zippin Cube is a modular, pre-fabricated cashierless store-in-a-box roughly 300 – 500 sq. ft. that can be assembled in under three weeks upon ordering.

The Zippin Cube is what is currently running in the Golden 1 Center Arena in Sacramento, CA. Zippin Co-Founder and CEO, Krishna Motukuri said to me over the phone last week that unlike other “pop-up” style cashierless checkout experiences — like those from AiFi, which use shipping-container-like structures — the Zippin Cube is modular, so it can fit inside odd-shaped real estate and can even include coolers for beverages and other cold items. Additionally, the Cube comes with all the wiring and mounts ready to go, so it’s easy to install the technology.

These pop-ups promise to be a game changer for food retailers. First, it allows them to quickly and affordably extend their brands into new areas relatively inexpensively. Think: a permanent pop-up mini-Kroger or 7-11 in the lobby of an office building or at a music festival. Or, if you wanted to get really nutty, a supermarket could open up a convenience store inside its existing store. This could be a super fast option for customers just needing one or two very basic grab-and-go items like milk or gum or sodas.

As newsy as this fundraise is for Zippin, it’s also worth pointing out Evolv’s decision to lead the round. As noted, Evolv is the venture fund of Kraft Heinz, and it’s easy to see why that CPG giant might be interested in a technology like Zippin’s. The cameras and AI in a cashierless store environment give Kraft Heinz insights closer to the consumer, with the ability to analyze what products are picked up, which ones are put back, and which products are skipped over entirely when people shop.

We’ve seen a flurry of funding activity in the cashierless checkout space in the last quarter of 2019. Accel Robotics raised $30 million last week, Trigo raised $22 million and Caper raised $10 million, each in September. All this funding is another good indicator that 2020 is going to be a transformational year for cashierless checkout.

Today’s funding brings the total amount raised by Zippin to $15 million. The company previously received an undisclosed strategic investment from Brazillian retailer Lojas Americanas, whos Ame Go convenience stores will be powered by Zippin technology. Zippin said today that it will be launching at new stores in the coming months.

(Photo Credit: Sacramento Kings/Golden 1 Center)

Makr Shakr Launches “Automation Stipend” to Retrain Humans Impacted by Robots

One of the biggest questions looming over the future of an automated workforce is what happens to the human workers replaced by robots? Makr Shakr, the company behind the robot bartender Toni, has come up with one solution: help pay for training for the humans being replaced.

Makr Shakr, in partnership with State University of New York (SUNY), today announced the launch of its “Automation Stipend.” For every bartending robot sold, Makr Shakr “assigns a $1,000 monthly stipend to a selected person whose profession might be impacted by the automation” according to the press announcement. The stipend is meant to help provide training “with special attention to the relation between tech and the food and leisure industries.”

The Automation Stipend is starting this month in Buffalo, NY in collaboration with the SUNY Erie Community College and SUNY Erie Foundation. The first candidate Makr Shakr sponsored is Brian Townsell, a 50 year old hospitality worker, who is getting a scholarship in the Brewery Science and Service Program for a period of four months.

According to the Brookings Institute, food service will be one of the job sectors hit hardest by automation. One of the solutions Brookings has suggested is a “Universal Adjustment Benefit,” which would include career counseling, retraining, and “robust income support.”

Robots are already taking over human jobs across the food industry. Whether that’s Picnic’s conveyor-style robot that can assemble 300 pizzas in an hour, Bear Robotics’ waiter and busser robot, Dishcraft’s dishwashing robot, or Starship‘s robot delivery rovers.

One of the complications of all this is that robots aren’t uniformly bad. They can take over dangerous and repetitive tasks (like working a fryer), provide food around the clock (like Chowbotics’ Sally), and perhaps even reduce the price of some food by reducing the labor cost for a restaurant.

But that reduction in labor has its own cost, and it’s something that we as a society will need to deal with. There will need to be a lot of participation from governments and the private sector, and there won’t be one magic panacea. Makr Shakr’s Automation Stipend might be a marketing ploy, but it seems like a good place to start.

Nuro and Walmart Partner for Autonomous Grocery Delivery in Houston

Walmart and Nuro announced a collaboration today in which the two companies will pilot autonomous grocery delivery in Houston, TX via Nuro’s self-driving pod-like vehicles.

According to the press release:

In the coming months, the autonomous delivery service will be available to Houston customers who have opted into the program. The service will use R2, Nuro’s custom-built delivery vehicle that carries only products with no onboard driver or passengers, and autonomous Toyota Priuses, all powered by Nuro’s proprietary self-driving software and hardware.

Nuro’s R2 pods are low-speed vehicles roughly half the size of regular cars. There are two compartments for cargo, and literally no room for a driver. The advantage of the R2 is that is is more nimble than a full-sized auto and can’t drive as fast. This could make it a “safer” choice than self-driving cars as local governments look to regulate the emerging world of autonomous vehicles on city streets.

This is not the first autonomous delivery rodeo for either Walmart or Nuro. Nuro has tested self-driving grocery delivery for Kroger in Arizona as well as Houston. Walmart announced a partnership with self-driving van delivery startup Udelv earlier this year, and with Gaitek in July to make “middle mile” deliveries between Walmart stores.

Questions remain, however, about whether consumers will want fully autonomous grocery delivery devoid of any human. While it opens up a whole new world of around-the-clock delivery, the drawback is that the vehicles stop at the curb, so shoppers still need to go out to the vehicle and lug the groceries back in. Most of the time, that’s probably a first-world problem. However, it becomes more of an issue if you in a fourth-floor apartment or have mobility issues.

Houston, which has become quite the hotbed for self-driving vehicles and robots. In addition to Kroger, Nuro has been doing self-driving pizza delivery for Domino’s there. Starship robots are now rolling around the University of Houston delivering food to hungry students and staff.

Kroger and Nuro’s pilot will first be available to a select group of those who have opted-in to the service, with plans to expand to the general public later in 2020.

Postmates’ Serve Robot Spotted (and Filmed) Making Deliveries in LA

From the looks of it, Postmates’ Serve robot is ready to roll into action, almost exactly a year after the delivery service unveiled it.

First, Serve made an appearance on The Ellen Show last week in a staged bit about delivering chips and guacamole. And almost immediately after that, Chris Reilly posted an Instagram video of Serve out in the wild making a delivery in “#Hollywood” by the “#CNNBuilding.”

It’s not exactly thrilling footage, but it does show that Serve is real and making rounds around La La Land.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B5tJXUxlN6b

In addition to being cute and cool, Serve’s apparent public debut party, as it were, is a bright spot for what has otherwise been a bummer of back half of 2019 for Postmates. The company delayed its IPO following the WeWork debacle and a general souring on third-party delivery services that have yet to prove their profitability. Then last week, Postmates shut down its Mexico City office and laid off dozens of employees across multiple offices in the U.S.

But Postmates continues to ride the robot delivery wave. Serve is just one of the delivery rover robots that have rolled into the market this year. Starship is being used by a number of colleges now, Refraction AI is proving its hardiness by making deliveries in snow covered streets, and Kiwi just announced a reinvention of its own robot that will make the device more rugged and give it the ability to retrieve items from vending machines.

Los Angeles is an interesting test case for Postmates’ delivery robots. It’s very spread out, which typically works against rover bots with their slow speed and smaller delivery range. However, Los Angeles has nice weather year round and is pretty flat (making it easier for the robot to get around), plus it has a ton of celebrities who order via Postmates.

Postmates seems to be focusing Serve’s, errr, service in California right now. The company announced it August that it was given a permit for sidewalk robotics operations from the City of San Francisco.

Kiwi Unveils New Name and a New Robot (That Can Get Food From Vending Machines!)

Words matter. That’s a lesson I hope robot delivery startup learned earlier this week when it sent out an email saying “We want to let you know that we will be ending the Kiwibot delivery service, effective December 15, 2019.“

We weren’t sure exactly what that meant, and after a full day of confusion and multiple explanatory emails from the company, it turns out it wasn’t the END end for Kiwi. It was just stopping service for the winter. (Sidenote: Don’t skimp on a copywriter.)

The company then said it would be announcing its reinvention yesterday, which it did towards the close of business with a corporate blog post. Kiwi had already shared some details from this “reinvention” earlier in the week: the company has changed its name to “Kiwibot,” there’s a new, more rugged robot on the way (see video below), and something called Kiwi Express promises to be the “First end to end robotic Food delivery service.”

Yesterday’s blog post added a few details:

In 2020, we will roll out Kiwibot Cloud Pro. A new generation is coming. Refined hardware design, new operations features, and superior human interactions will transform the logistics landscape and yield better service.

We combine sensors of a custom made stereo camera to get more information about the environment. Our Kiwibots will sense the world more accurately and move more precisely. Our Kiwibots are now resilient to dynamic light conditions on different sidewalks.

Kiwibot v3.2 | Nuestro robot más avanzado

In addition to the new technology, this new Kiwibot is also more rugged, which will make it less likely to get stuck (and need a human’s help).

On Kiwibot’s website, the company says that its robots can now interact with vending machines. At first blush, this might seem like overkill to have a robot pick you up a Snickers bar from the lobby vending machine because you are too lazy to walk down there. But vending machines are changing and turning into something more akin to small restaurants. Companies like Yo-Kai Express serve hot ramen from vending machines, and Cafe X is re-classifying its coffee robot as a vending machine. So being early to integrate its robot with those types of systems now makes a lot of sense for Kiwi.

It’s nice to know that Kiwi isn’t shutting down. While there are still a lot of issues to work out, I’m still a big believer in robot delivery. More players in the space means more competition and more innovation.

Now Kiwi just needs fewer wording mistakes.

Accel Robotics Raises $30M Series A for its Cashierless Checkout Tech

Accel Robotics, a San Diego-based startup that creates cashierless checkout technology, announced yesterday that it has raised a $30 million Series A round of funding led by SoftBank. This brings the total amount raised by the company to $37 million.

Accel is among a host of companies looking to create so-called frictionless shopping experiences, where shoppers enter a store, grab what they want and then exit, getting charged automatically for what they take.

We don’t know much about Accel’s technology or how it differentiates from others in the space. According to the funding press announcement, Accel uses a camera-based system along with AI to determine what people pick up (and put back). So it sounds more like Trigo and Grabango than Zippin, or even Amazon Go, both of which augment computer vision with shelf sensors.

Accel says that its technology is already being used by grocery stores, restaurants, and convenience stores in both Japan and North America. Unlike other companies in this cashierless cohort, however, Accel isn’t publicly naming those partners.

This year has been a transformational one for cashierless startups as many have announced many of their clientele: Trigo is working with Shufersal and Tesco, Grabango with Giant Eagle, Zippin with Lojas Americanas and Caper with Sobeys.

To be sure, competition is fierce in this space. Even Amazon, which kicked off the whole cashierless craze, is reportedly in talks to license out its technology to third parties, which could alter the competitive landscape even further. But there are a lot of grocery and convenience stores around the world, so there is plenty of opportunity to go around.

Accel says that it plans to use its new funding to expand worldwide by “growing operations, increasing manufacturing capacity, and streamlining its expanding deployment pipeline.”

Cafe X Opens New Version of its Robot Barista in San Jose Airport

If you flew into/out of the San Jose Airport over the past Thanksgiving holiday — bummer! You just missed having a robot make and serve you a latte. Cafe X announced today that its latest automated coffee kiosk is now open for business at the San Jose Airport (SJC).

This is the fourth Cafe X location to open in the Bay Area and SJC is the company’s first airport location (the opening of Cafe X at the San Francisco airport has been delayed due to airport construction).

This also marks the release of a new version of the Cafe X robot that was built in-house and features larger pickup windows, an expanded menu (the robot can now make 6 drinks at a time including four from different taps) and an designated area that can be used for different modules like pastry shelves in the future.

With high volumes of people needing their caffeine fix in a hurry, airports are prime locations for coffee robots like Cafe X’s. The autonomous articulating arm can consistently and quickly make drinks all day without needing to take a break. Cafe X rival Briggo also opened up a location at SFO this summer, and is also at the Austin-Bergstrom International airport.

One difference between Cafe X and Briggo is that Briggo is a standalone coffee kiosk with no humans, whereas Cafe X still has humans on hand to provide customer service and product education. However, I spoke with Cafe X Founder and CEO Henry Hu today, and he told me that the company is in the final process of getting NSF certification so it can operate as a vending machine. Operating as a vending machine means that Cafe X’s will be able to operate 24 hours a day with or without a human.

You’re going to see more high-end vending machines like Cafe X, Briggo and Yo-Kai Express, which makes hot bowls of ramen, pop up in more airports and other high-traffic locations in the future. Vending machines can operate around the clock to feed hungry travelers or employees when other stores are closed. Briggo has partnered with SSP America to open up its Coffee Hauses at an additional 25 airport locations.

Cafe X’s new robot is located in Terminal B, Cafe X at SJC and is open daily from 5:30 AM 10:30 PM for now. Hu said Cafe X will be expanding outside of the Bay Area and into New York next year.

Aeon to Bring Ocado’s Robotic Grocery Fulfillment Centers to Japan

Over the recent holiday break, Aeon, one of Japan’s biggest grocery store chains, announced a partnership to build out Ocado’s robotic fulfillment centers (h/t to ZDNet).

Based in the UK, Ocado is an online grocer with a high-tech platform that combines software and robotic smart warehouses to facilitate fast delivery for customers.

From the press announcement:

Aeon will launch a new company by March 2020 to enhance digital, using AI and robotics, to provide a more convenient online shopping experience for our consumers. Leveraging [Ocado Smart Platform], the first [Customer Fulfillment Center] in Japan will be built by 2023.

This is the latest international partnership for Ocado. The company has similar agreements with ICA Group in Sweden, Group Casino in France, and with Kroger here in the U.S. Kroger invested in Ocado and has already started building out a number of Ocado-style robotic warehouses in places like Dallas, TX and Monroe, OH.

Online grocery shopping is still a small percentage of overall grocery shopping, but it’s growing. Automated fulfillment facilities like those from Ocado and Takeoff will be coming online throughout the next year and could give online grocery shopping a boost by providing ultra fast order processing for either pickup or delivery.

It’s a trend we’ll definitely be watching, around the world, in 2020.

Updated: Kiwi “Reinvention” Coming This Week

The original headline for this post was “Developing: Is Robot Delivery Service Kiwi Shutting Down in Berkeley or Altogether?”

SECOND UPDATE: Later last night, Kiwi sent out another email with the following:

Hi there ,
In the last 24 hours, we have received thousands of messages from the community, customers, and partners related to an email we sent today with the subject: ⚰️☠️Kiwi no more.

First of all: KIWIBOT IS NOT SHUTTING DOWN. Our aim was to draw attention to the early ending of deliveries for this semester, but the email was incorrectly worded. We are sorry to cause you worry, but are overwhelmed at the amount of Kiwi Love we have received. We plan to release all information regarding our revolutionized Kiwibot technology on December 5th, but here are some teasers:

With that said, I want to tell you about some of the projects/news we are going to announce this Thursday:

  • Kiwibot 3.2 Check out the video(It’s pretty cool) 
  • Kiwi Express (First end to end robotic Food delivery service) 
  • Kiwibot as our only brand name and new website kiwibot.com, (this is the last email you will receive from @kiwicampus.com) So Kiwi no more… 
  • Our new Lab and updates related to our supervisor’s program in Colombia.
  • Details of the next Kiwibot version, and we want YOU to be involved (Food Coupons available, stay tuned this Thursday 5th)
  • Kiwibot’s return on January 21st

Here’s the video:

Kiwibot v3.2 | Nuestro robot más avanzado

UPDATE: We just got a second email from Kiwi this afternoon. Looks like the company isn’t shutting down entirely. The email said:

Our PR team is working on a special announcement regarding Kiwibot’s reinvention for next semester, please keep an eye out for it this Thursday, December 5th

ORIGINAL POST: We received an email this morning from Kiwi, the robot delivery service, saying that it is ending its service as of December 15, 2019. What we don’t know at this point is whether that means it is shutting down the delivery service just at the University of California Berkeley (which is where I originally signed up for and used the service), or everywhere, or if it is pivoting to something else.

We received the following email this morning from Kiwi:

Hey,

When we started Kiwibot a little over 2 years ago, we had a vision for a service that would allow people to send atoms using delivery robots. Since then, over 20,000 people have signed up for Kiwibot, and more than 80,000 orders have been placed. We gave Berkeley an affordable and accessible way of getting food, and we’re honored to have been the ‘first delivery robot’ for so many people.

We want to let you know that we will be ending the Kiwibot delivery service, effective December 15, 2019. The Kiwibot app will remain accessible until December 15th, 2019. After that date, your points and coupons will no longer work, and you will no longer be able to order.

We want to extend a very special thanks to our entire community. We are truly humbled by your curiosity and innovative spirit. It was a great adventure, and we’re proud of what we built – we sincerely hope you enjoyed using Kiwibot.

Kiwi had been using its cooler-sized rover robots to make food deliveries around UC Berkeley and Westwood in Los Angeles, and was in talks with the city of Sacramento about deploying its service there.

Earlier this year, Kiwi announced expansion plans to fifteen more schools, but there seemed to be a couple of snags along the way. Kiwi said it was expanding to both Purdue and Harvard. But Purdue launched robot delivery with competitor delivery robot company Starship this fall, and Harvard was reportedly in talks to bring Starship robots there as well. Starship works with school administrations, while Kiwi was planning on going through student groups.

As mentioned, I used Kiwi at UC Berkeley and while it had its glitches (and caught fire that one time), the experience also felt like a glimpse into the future of on-demand food. So far Kiwi has raised $2 million in funding.

This story is developing and we have reached out to Kiwi to find out more. We will update this post as we get more information.

How Will Winter Affect Autonomous Delivery Robots? Snow Problem!

A lot of work in autonomous robots is done in places like Scottsdale, Houston and the Bay Area. What places like Scottsdale, Houston and the Bay Area have in common is that they have mild-to-nonexistant winters. But up north in Michigan and Wisconsin, where it’s already snowing, autonomous delivery bots from Refraction AI and Starship are being put to the test.

Refraction is based out of Ann Arbor, MI, and it’s three-wheeled REV-1 robot has been designed to travel in bad weather. As we wrote around the time of its launch:

…Refraction AI combines software and hardware to battle bad weather. First is the environmental scanning provided by a 12-camera setup as well as ultrasound and radar sensors on the REV-1. To make the robot less expensive, the REV-1 foregoes the LIDAR systems popular with other autonomous robots. And according to Johnson-Roberson, Refraction AI’s camera rig also allows the robot to track things not on the ground like buildings and cars to navigate even when road lines are not visible. The other way the REV-1 takes on bad weather is rather low tech. “We’re using fat bike tires a low PSI so they are squishy,” said Johnson-Roberson. “They can run in snow and rain.”

But it’s one thing to describe how a robot will work in inclement weather; it’s another to see it in action. Thankfully, the folks at Refraction shot a video of its robot on a snow-covered road a couple of weeks back and shared it with The Spoon. Check it out:

Refraction.AI’s REV-1 (Pity the cyclist following it)

While that video doesn’t show it taking turns or hills, or having to deal with traffic, it certainly looks like the REV-1 can handle slushy conditions. Which is actually good news all around. Barring the arrival of a blizzard, hungry folks can order meals for delivery guilt-free because they aren’t forcing someone to drive or ride in the snow, and restaurants can still earn delivery revenue when the weather turns.

Elsewhere in the midwest, the students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are just now learning whether or not that town’s snowy weather will keep the newly arrived Starship robots from making food deliveries. The Wisconsin State Journal’s Just Ask Us section fielded this question this week: Will UW-Madison’s food delivery robots get stuck in the snow?

The answer was pretty straightforward and filled with the type of common sense you’d expect from a Midwesterner:

On days when there are blizzards or icy conditions that would make the sidewalks unnavigable for people, the delivery robots will not operate. When students go on the app to order food, it would show that the marketplaces are closed

A spokesperson for the university goes on to say that since the robots were designed with a low-profile and traction tires that could handle Estonian weather, they should be able to handle a Wisconsin winter. (If you go to UWM, send us a photo or video of the robot in snowy action).

The weather outside may be frightful, but putting robots through these harsh weather paces means that they’ll be available in more places beyond Houston, Phoenix and the Bay Area in the near future.

Sony Sets up AI Unit to Work on Food

Sony announced this week that is has launched Sony AI, a new organization that will research and develop artificial intelligence specifically for games, imaging and sensors, and “gastronomy.” The new initiative will have offices in Japan, Europe and the U.S.

There aren’t many details around what exactly Sony will be working on, but Sony spokesman Shinichi Tobe told AlJazeera yesterday that “AI and robotics will not replace chefs. We are aiming to offer new tools to expand their creativity with AI and robotics.”

This isn’t Sony’s first foray into food. In April of last year, Sony teamed up with Carnegie-Mellon University to work on food robots. As we reported at the time:

Sony said they were starting off with food-related robots because the complexities involved with food could later be applied to a wider range of industries. Specifically, it cited the ability to work with fragile and odd-shaped materials, as well as the ability to operate a robot in small spaces.

AI and robots are like peanut butter and chocolate with AI being the “brain” for the robot “hands.” Things like computer vision, deep learning and synthetic data help form the AI so the robot can determine objects to grab and manipulate, etc..

Sony’s motivations may also be more societal in nature as the company’s home country of Japan is facing an aging population. Robots and other forms of automation could help with a potentially diminished labor force.

Food is a popular subject for robotics and AI researchers. Nvidia’s Lab in Seattle built a kitchen to train its robots to do everyday tasks. IBM partnered with spice company McCormick to use AI to develop new food products. And Korea’s Woowa Bros. hooked up with UCLA to work on food robots as well.

Something tells me we’ll be seeing more of these types of deal throughout next year.

French Nutritional Coaching App Foodvisor Raises $4.5M

Foodvisor, a nutrition assistant app that aims to help people eat better, announced today that it has raised $4.5 million from the VC fund Agrinnovation (operated by Demeter) along with other angel investors. With this round, Foodvisor has raised $5.3 million to date.

Foodvisor creates an AI-powered food diary that allows users to keep track of what they eat. The app uses a combination of computer vision and deep learning so that all a user need do is snap a picture of the food they are eating. Foodvisor can then identify the food on the plate, serving size and create a detailed nutritional report. Foodvisor says its app can identify 1,200 different food items and is constantly learning new ones.

The company says it will use the new money to accelerate growth in the United States where, the Foodvisor CEO makes a point to say in the press announcement emailed to The Spoon, that “70% of the Americans are overweight or obese.” Foodvisor says that currently 20 percent of its user base comes from the U.S.

They say that you lose weight in the kitchen and get fit at the gym. Keeping track of what you eat is a good first step for anyone looking to shed a few pounds and get healthier. Foodvisor isn’t the only app that uses your smartphone camera to help make food journaling easier. Bite.ai offers a free consumer app as well as an API that other business can tap into to for similar food recognition services.

Foodvisor offers a free app for iOS and Android as well as premium version that offers more personalized advice and recommendations for a monthly subscription that costs from $4.99 to $6.99.