Minnow, which makes IoT-enabled lockers for food delivery, is the winner of the Smart Kitchen Summit 2020 Startup Showcase. The prestigious annual award highlights independent companies doing the best and most innovative work in the food tech space.
Though this year’s showcase went virtual, it still attracted hundreds of applicants from across the food tech landscape. And while all our finalists were compelling, Minnow’s solution wound up impressing our judges the most.
Meant for residential buildings, offices (whenever those re-open) and other high-traffic locations, a Minnow pod has a number of cloud-connected cubbies. When a food order arrives, it’s placed into a cubby and held until the end customer comes to unlock the cubby and retrieve their food.
One aspect of the Minnow pod that is particularly useful during this global pandemic is that it’s contactless. There is no human-to-human interaction when delivering food. These pods can also integrate even more convenience to home meal delivery process by allowing customers to pick up their food orders when they are ready, not the exact second the food arrives. To say Minnow pods could be useful during the time of COVID-19 is a bit of an understatement.
On a more personal note. It’s fun to see Minnow win this award because we’ve been covering the company for a number of years and have watched it change and grow. We first covered them back when they started in Portland, Maine, were called Veebie and were creating a mobile locker system that would park on busy sidewalks. Then they changed their name to Kadabra and settled on the stationary locker and went cross-country to the other Portland, in Oregon. Then this year, Minnow launched its pods, raised $2.2 million and now they are crowned the SKS Startup Showcase winners.
Congratulations to Minnow and thank you to all the Smart Kitchen Summit Startup Showcase finalists this year.
Leave a Reply