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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Blendid

Watch The Jamba Smoothie Robot In Action In The Middle of Stonewood Center Mall

Sometimes it’s hard to visualize something in action until, well, you see it in action.

That’s why I thought this fast-motion video clip from Blendid of their new Jamba branded smoothie robot is so interesting.

In the clip, you can see the robot sitting in the middle of the mall and shoppers convening around it as it makes smoothies. The placement of the robot in the middle of the mall walkway where you typically find iPhone case and t-shirt booths illustrates why Jamba is interested in trying this new format out. The ability to drop a smoothie bot into a mall without the traditional store opens up the option of a faster-deployed, lower cost, and less permanent build-out.

Jamba and Blendid have hinted additional locations are to come. I expect if this location goes well, we’ll see more malls added to the rollout plans for the Jambabot.

You can see how the robot makes a smoothie in the video below.

Jamba by Blendid - Stonewood Center in Downey, CA

Jamba and Blendid Open Second Robot Smoothie Kiosk, Eyeing More Locations

You know what they say: one robot smoothie kiosk is an experiment, two make a trend.

Ok, so while no one really says that, it is true in this case as Jamba, the retailer of health beverages and smoothie drinks, has announced the opening of its second co-branded robotic smoothie kiosk in partnership with Blendid.

The new Jamba-bot will be in Stonewood Center in Downey, CA, a shopping mall located in the broader Los Angeles metro area. The first co-branded kiosk by Jamba/Blendid, which opened in late 2020, is located in a Walmart on the outskirts of Sacramento. By opening its second location in a shopping mall, it looks like the health drink operator of nearly a thousand locations is trying out new types of venues in which it can put unattended retail bots to serve up healthy beverages. As hinted at in the release, it won’t be long before the company drops a smoothie bot in a gym or college campus:

Building on the successful 2020 opening of the first Jamba by Blendid in Dixon, CA, this is the next step in the effort to open Jamba by Blendid kiosks in additional types of venues – from big box retailers and shopping malls to gyms, hospitals, and college campuses.

Jamba operates using a franchise model, one which it plans to continue even as it enters the robotic vending era.

“After a successful launch of our first Jamba by Blendid kiosk, we’re excited to open a second test kiosk at the Stonewood Center, bringing freshly blended smoothies to mall shoppers,” said Geoff Henry, president of Jamba in the news release. “Jamba by Blendid provides an opportunity for our local franchisees to make smoothies more accessible to Jamba fans, while leveraging the latest in technology to deliver contactless food.”

With the company sticking to its primary franchise business model to fund expansion of the Jamba-bot, the possibility of a smoothie robot becomes an exciting new option for franchise entrepreneurs. Opening up potential new high-traffic venues like gyms, campuses, or even airports gives existing franchisees a new way to expand in the same city without cannibalizing their existing storefronts. It also gives them an accelerated pathway to open a location that doesn’t put them through the same hiring and construction headaches that often accompany a traditional franchise location.

Jamba is owned by franchise store conglomerate Focus Brands, which also owns Schlotzsky’s, Carvel, Cinnabon, and Aunt Annie’s among others. While some of the food types in their portfolio might not lend themselves to automation, it is intriguing to think about whether this push into food robotics by one of the largest franchise operators in one of its businesses could signify a broader strategy. It’s not too hard to imagine the tantalizing smell of a Cinnabon cinnamon roll wafting from an automated kiosk (a Cinnabot?) filling the terminal of an airport or college campus. I have to imagine Focus Brands – and its franchisees – are thinking the same thing.

Smoothie Robot Blendid Joins The Equity Crowdfunding Crowd With $2 Million Raise

Blendid, the maker of smoothie-making robots, announced today it had raised $2 million via crowdfunding platform StartEngine. According to the announcement sent to The Spoon, the raise brings the company’s total funding to $20 million raised through venture capital, strategic funding, and crowdfunding. The company raised funds over a four month period from over 1475 individual investors.

From the release:

Blendid is currently focused on growing its location footprint to increase its reach across the United States and perfect its food automation platform. Recently announcing its expansion plans to two new geographic areas, Blendid will use the additional funds to accelerate its expansion into the Southern California and Georgia markets with openings in a variety of venues such as malls, airports, hospitals, universities and retail stores.

The company counts Walmart and Jamba as its customers and, according to company sources, has served over 50 thousand customer orders.

Blendid isn’t the only robotics company to use crowdfunding in recent years. In fact, it seems like food robotics equity crowdfunding space has become downright crowded .

So why the interest in equity crowdfunding? There are a few reasons:

The first reason is the shine of traditional rewards-based crowdfunding has dimmed in recent years after several high-profile failures like the Coolest Cooler. By offering equity in the company, smaller investors feel they have a stake in the company and may be more forgiving than those who came to see rewards-based crowdfunding platforms as merchandise marketplaces.

Second, equity crowdfunding also gives small companies a way to sidestep traditional venture and strategic investors who a) might have higher oversight requirements or b) ask for too much of a stake than a founder(s) is willing to give up. It also opens up an entirely new pool of funding from small investors who have been shut out of the more traditional venture funding ecosystem.

Finally, robotics is a category that resonates with smaller investors. It’s an easy-to-understand space, and the investment thesis undergirding many of the proposals is largely correct: the food space is ripe for more automation and robotics, so why shouldn’t I put some skin in the game.

Long term, I expect the food robotics equity crowdfunding momentum to continue as smaller investors look for places to put their money outside of traditional investment vehicles. How these investments pay off for these investors is another story worth watching.

Robot Smoothie Company Blendid Launches Equity Crowdfunding Campaign

Blendid, a company that produces standalone robotic smoothie-making kiosks, is running an equity crowdfunding campaign through MicroVentures with the goal of raising up to $5 million.

Blendid sent word of its crowdfunding efforts via a marketing email today, though it appears that the campaign itself has been live for roughly a month already. As of this writing, Blendid has already raised more than $240,000 in its crowdfunding campaign.

Equity crowdfunding is becoming quite the popular way to raise money for food-related robot companies. In 2020 alone, Miso Robotics, Kiwibot, Piestro, Bobacino and Small Robot Company all launched or announced equity crowdfunding campaigns.

There are pluses and minuses to going the crowdfunding route. By eschewing traditional VC capital, startups lose out on some of the knowledge and connections that come with institutional investors. But at the same time, crowdfunding helps these companies sidestep some of the scaling pressures that comes with VC money.

Previously, Blendid (formerly 6D Bytes) raised $13.5 million from Benhamou Global Ventures, Plug & Play, Hone Capital and Partech Ventures. We sent a note to Blendid to find out more about its decision to go the crowdfunding route and will update when we hear back. UPDATE: Blendid Founder and CEO, Vipin Jain emailed us the following statement:

“Since Blendid has recently expanded into retail establishments with national partners – giving us a much broader audience – it made sense to do crowdfunding.  Crowdfunding not only allows you to raise money, but also drives consumer brand awareness and advocacy, by enabling fans of Blendid to individually invest as well as enjoy our delicious blends.”

As part of its pitch to potential investors of the crowdfunding campaign, Blendid shared some of its financials. Not surprisingly, 2020 was a rough year for the company. Blendid’s first two locations were at colleges, and given the pandemic and the shift to remote learning, those machines have been inactive for most of the year. According to Blendid, the company earned just $546 in Q3 of this year and $64,119 for its 2020 fiscal year.

Having said that, the fourth quarter has been pretty busy for Blendid. The company has opened two new robots at Walmart locations in California. One of those locations is actually a co-branded robot with Jamba as the company moves away from an owner-operated model to more licensed deals. This shift towards licensing should help with consumer adoption by leveraging the brand recognition that comes with a partnership like Jamba (and others).

One other interesting tid bit from Blendid’s disclosures is that the company is already looking beyond making just smoothies. From the “Product Roadmap” portion of the campaign page:

Q3 2021 – Food format #2 leveraging the existing kiosk, which has been designed as a platform that can be modified to support a large variety of food formats.

For those interested, the minimum investment for the crowdfunding campaign is $100. This post isn’t an endorsement of Blendid and any investment carries with it a certain amount of risk.

Blendid’s New Feature Has the Robot Hold Your Smoothie Until You’re Ready

In addition to making your smoothie, Blendid’s robot will now hold it for you until you are ready to pick it up.

The company posted a video to Linkedin yesterday showing a variety of drinks on its counter. Amidst the colorful assortment of drinks are two small, relatively flat U-shaped brackets. In the video (below) you can see the brackets slide around the surface, pushing drinks into the pickup area.

We’re already seeing an acceleration of interest in food robotics like Blendid’s because of their capabilities and contactless nature. Blendid’s robot can make nine drinks simultaneously, up to 45 drinks per hour and work around the clock. All the ingredients are kept behind glass and sealed away from people, and having a robot slinging drinks means that there is one less human to be a vector for viral transmission.

Blendid is a little ahead of its automated vending bretheren when it comes to contactless retail. In addition to the robot preparing the drinks, ordering is done by mobile phone. Other robot vending services like Chowbotics still rely on touchscreens on the machine itself, which is obviously problematic during a pandemic as dozens of people use the machine in a day.

The addition of Blendid’s hold feature adds another nice bit of social distancing to the company’s offering. Being able to order ahead and have the drink held means customers all don’t need to stand around the machine to order and then wait for their drinks at the same time.

Another interesting bit about Blendid’s new hold feature is how it’s similar to the pucks used by Truebird’s robot coffee barista. Rather than having a robot arms pick up and move drinks around, Blendid’s brackets glide across the counter, sliding drinks into place.

Given that the pandemic is still going strong throughout much of the country, I expect we will continue to see small iterations like Blendid’s across the automated vending space to create even more contactless experiences.

For more on the automated vending machine market, check out my recent report on The Great Vending Reinvention: The Spoon’s Smart Vending Machine Market Report (Spoon Plus Membership required).

The Great Vending Reinvention: The Spoon’s Smart Vending Machine Market Report

Thanks to advances in hardware, the internet of things, and food preparation, vending machines today are basically restaurants in a box. They offer high-end cuisine in minutes, require minimal setup time, and have the on-board computing smarts to manage inventory and communicate any issues that arise.

With these capabilities, it’s no wonder the vending machine category was valued at more than $30 billion in 2018, according to Grandview Research, and was anticipated to have a CAGR of 9.4 percent from 2019 through 2025.

Had this report been written even just a few months ago, the main takeaway would have been that vending machines are perfect for high-traffic areas that operate around the clock: airports, corporate offices, college dorms, and hospitals.

But we’re living in a world continuously being shaped and reshaped by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Right now, some form of shelter-in-place orders blanket most of the U.S. Global air travel volume has plummeted, so airports are not busy. Non-essential businesses are closed and people are working from home, not office buildings. And colleges may not hold in-person classes until 2021.

While on the surface, those factors suggest vending machine companies will be yet-another sector wiped out by coronavirus, there has actually never been a better time for the automated vending machine industry. The small footprint and high-end food these devices offer are perhaps more important than ever at a time when minimizing human-to-human contact in foodservice is paramount to doing business. That makes the vending machine market uniquely positioned to capitalize on a post-pandemic world.

This report will define what the automated vending machine space is, list the major players, and present the challenges and opportunities for the market going forward.

Companies profiled in this report include Alberts, API Tech/Smart Pizza, Basil Street, Blendid, Briggo, Byte Technology, Cafe X, Chowbotics, Crown Coffee, Farmer’s Fridge, Fresh Bowl, Le Bread Xpress, Macco Robotics, TrueBird, and Yo-Kai Express.

This research report is exclusive for Spoon Plus members. You can learn more about Spoon Plus here.

Meet Blix, an All-in-One Blender & Subscription Service For Soups, Spreads & Smoothies

In a world where seemingly every other kitchen hardware startup has a pitch for a Keurig-esque business model of recurring revenue on their investor deck, it helps when your cofounder has actually sold a company to Keurig for hundreds of millions.

That’s the case with Blix, a startup cofounded by longtime beverage executive Eduoard Sterngold, who previously was the CEO of a company called Bevyz that was acquired by Keurig Green Mountain in 2014 for approximately $220 million.

It’s this type of pedigree that has no doubt helped Blix raise funding and build a team on the way towards launching a new blender-based food system that, yes, uses a proprietary cup-system to make a variety of soups, spreads and smoothies.

I caught up with the company’s president Ariel Sterngold (son of Blix CEO Eduoard) by phone, who told me that after rolling out the product in trials in 2019, they are pushing out the product nationwide over the course of 2020.

So how does the Blix work? The system is built around a blender and a single-use recyclable cups filled with pre-portioned and packaged ingredients. The ingredients are frozen using a technique called IQF (Individual Quick Freezing) where each ingredient -- a strawberry, piece of squash, etc -- is frozen independently before they are assembled.

The most unique part of the Blix system is the lid, which includes a single-use blade to chop up and mix the meal. The blade for each meal is developed specifically for that meal. By reading the included RFID chip, the system can determine the meal for each cup and adjust the blend accordingly.

One of the things that first struck me when looking at Blix were the words “single-use,” which in today’s world of increased focus on sustainability seems like a problem. Sterngold told me that the system, including the blade on the lid, are fully recyclable, which does mean it’s better than Keurig pods, which only are only partially recyclable. Still, compostable would be better, and reusable would be event better than that.

The main advantage Blix pitches is its ease-of-use as compared to normal smoothie making, which usually requires some chopping and measuring of ingredients and, if it’s a normal blender, a little clean up time. You’ll have to pay for that convenience, however, as each cup clocks in at $7.49 to $7.99 depending on the plan.

Yes, there are subscription plans and, as of now, it’s the only way to get Blix. According to Sterngold, they experimented with a la carte and subscriptions over the past year and found subscription was the preferred method. The subscription plans come in six or twelve cup a week plans and can be paused any time.

What’s in the cups? Right now, users of the Blix can choose from up to twelve smoothie varieties, three types of soup and three types of spreads (two types of hummus and a pesto).

Currently cups are only being shipped on the east coast, but Sterngold told me they plan to open up with a second copacker in California (they currently have one one in New York state) later this year. The products are packed with dry ice and, according to the company, can be shipped across state lines.

I’ve heard lots of pitches for proprietary pod systems over the years. Outside of the coffee space, most have struggled to gain traction. However, like many, I do avoid making smoothies and other blender food largely because the clean up is a pain. Add in that is makes soups and spreads, and I admit the Blix is intriguing.

That said, given that I’m focused on reducing the amount of packaging waste I add into the the wastestream, I’m not super excited about the idea of single use container anything. While Blix say they are fully recyclable, compostable would be better, and resuable preferred. And this is even before we get to the shipping packaging or the RFID tag included with the cup.

In a way Blix reminds me of Daily Harvest, which offers frozen, pre-portioned ingredient cups for smoothies and soups, only without the hardware. Like Blix, Daily Harvest offers subscription plans for its single-use cups, and packaging is recyclable.

A closer analog might be Blendid, which launched a dedicated smoothie making ‘robot’ with a single-use cup system targeted at both smoothie shops and offices in 2016. The product never really took off, but that probably had more to do with not finding traction in the tough-to-crack office food market.

Will the Blix model of subscription food and blender land with consumers? We’ll soon see. The promise of the company’s ready-to-blend food combined with a proprietary blender system was enough for investors to put $13 million so far behind the company, a decent amount of backing in what have been relatively difficult days for hardware startups over the past year.

You can see how the Blix system works in the company-produced demo video below.

Blix: How To Blend Your Blix Cup

Take an Instagram Food Robot Tour of San Francisco! Cafe X, Yo-Kai Express, Creator, Blendid and Le Bread Xpress

One of the reasons we hosted our ArticulATE food robot conference in San Francisco this week is because, well, it’s where most food robots are. So it only made sense while I was in town to go on a Food Network-esque trip around town, enjoying all the robot repasts I could.

My tour did not disappoint. I spent the day walking (and Ubering) around SF visiting Cafe X, Yo-Kai Express, Creator, Blendid and Le Bread Xpress. Because it’s better to show than to tell, we created a Spoon Instagram (follow us!) to give you a glimpse at all the cool food robotics happening right now.

Blendid’s Smoothie Robot Heads Off to the University of San Francisco

If you want to see the future of robots, go to college. I don’t mean become a student and take classes, I mean just literally head to a college campus as they are quickly becoming the go-to spot for companies to launch robots. Among the latest is Blendid’s smoothie-making robot, which is launching at the University of San Francisco next Monday.

Blendid (a.k.a. 6DBytes) came out of stealth just about a year ago to launch its autonomous smoothie making station at the Plug and Play Center in Sunnyvale, CA. As The San Francisco Chronicle reports, Blendid has partnered with food service operator Bon Appetit to bring the smooth(ie) operator to USF. Chef B, as the robot is called there, can make up to 36 smoothies and hour and will operate 24 hours a day at the Market Cafe on USF’s campus.

USF is just the latest college to test out robots on campus. Northern Arizona University (NAU), George Mason University (GMU), UC Berkeley, and University of the Pacific all now have little rover delivery bots running around, dropping off food and snacks on their campuses.

College campuses are popular destinations for robots because there is a large population centralized in one contained geographic area, and everyone there has to eat. A robot like Blendid works well in that type of high-traffic environment because smoothies are typically something people want to grab quickly, and the robot can just sit and churn them out literally around the clock.

Blendid offers a franchise option for food service companies like Bon Appetit, allowing them to install the $70,000 robot with a lower up-front cost. Given the work Sodexo is doing with Starship’s robots at NAU and GMU, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was exploring a similar arrangement.

One interesting bit about the rollout of USF’s new robot smoothie maker; Blendid put this tidbit on its FAQ page:

Q: Does Blendid eliminate any jobs for existing Bon Appétit workers?
A: No. Blendid kiosk is an added bonus. It brings another food option in the Market Cafe without adding more stress on existing staff. It won’t eliminate any jobs. We hope this will help alleviate load on staff and reduce wait lines during busy hours.

The role of robots in the workforce is an ongoing debate, and it looks like Blendid and Bon Appetit are trying to get ahead of any controversy. The impact of automation is a big issue and it’s one that we’ll be tackling at our upcoming ArticulATE conference on food robotics in San Francisco on April 16th. You should definitely get a ticket and join us for the discussion!

6d Bytes Debuts New Smoothie Making Robot

Stealthy startup 6d bytes came out of hiding yesterday to debut Blendid, a fully autonomous, smoothie-making robot station. Using a combination of machine learning, machine vision and robotics, Blendid promises to deliver customizable and consistently tasting smoothies to consumers whenever they want.

Blendid is an all-in-one robotic installation that can be set up on-site in food service operations. Inside the kiosk, the robot system blends, pours and serves up smoothies. No humans are needed, except for the site operator to manage inventory and address any issues that my arise.

Customers can use a mobile app or Blendid tablets to order from a menu of drinks including Blueberry Cacao, Mango Mint and Green Warrior, with smoothies costing between $4 and $5 for a 12-ounce drink. The robot whips it together and slides it over in under two minutes.

While the wow factor for patrons might be watching the robot arm swing back and forth with precision (see video below), there is actually a lot of impressive artificial intelligence going on in the background to orchestrate the whole operation.

Blendid Station Working

Through extensive use of machine learning, Blendid tracks the amount of each ingredient in each drink. So, for example, one drink might include only 40 grams of bananas instead of 45. The user can provide feedback on their purchase, and if they happen to like the one with slightly less banana, Blendid will remember this and adjust the drink accordingly next time.

Blendid also aggregates all the data from all of its users to help make recommendations. When someone goes to order a drink the system will say “Welcome back, Would you like the usual? Or, given your taste, you might like this other drink.”

There is also a lot of machine vision going on. Every item is coded, but should someone accidentally put spinach in the blueberry bin, Blendid will “see” the difference, know that blueberries are not spinach, and adjust accordingly, understanding the new location of the spinach.

Blendid also has the capacity to self configure and self-calibrate. Basically, every component that goes into Blendid is a standalone smart IoT (internet of things) device. If an ingredient runs out, it will take that item off the menu; if a part fails, Blendid identifies what went wrong and alerts the operator. Operators can also get a live, steady stream of analytics from the machine, detailing what ingredients are being used, if any ingredients are low, how many drinks is it serving, etc.

Sadly, for smoothie connoisseurs such as myself, Blendid won’t be serving me up strawberry banana protein blasts from the comfort of my home. Each machine costs around $70,000 and is meant for large food service operations like school and corporate cafeterias, supermarkets and stadiums. Once set up, Blendid can work all day without breaks, and 6d bytes co-founder and CEO, Vipin Jain, says operators can earn their money back after just nine months.

6d bytes has been developing Blendid discreetly for the past three years. The company is based in Sunnyvale, CA, has 15 employees, and Jain says it has raised “a little less than” $4 million in venture funding. The first Blendid is now operational at the Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale California. (if you’re down there, do a taste test and let us know about it!)

Smoothies are just the start for 6d bytes. According Jain, the company’s robotic platform can be adapted to serve up hot and cold solid food. Jain is a big believer that food service and fast casual need to change and has big plans for his company

“The whole on-the-go food space has to go through a transition for better consumer experience and operator economics,” said Jain. “There are 80,000 food service locations where Blendid can go. It’s a big addressable market. Our intent is to go after these locations.”

Perhaps as it goes after them, Blendid can hook up with Cafe X and Flippy to deliver a full-on robot army to get customers through breakfast, mid-morning coffee and lunch.