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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

kitchen robots

The Food Tech Show: Walmart+ and Ghost Kitchen Robots

It may be the waning days of summer, but there’s still time to get outside for a walk and listen to podcasts and the Spoon team is here to help with our latest episode of The Food Tech Show.

This week, the team discusses the launch of the strategy behind Walmart+, Walmart’s long-rumored membership program centered around grocery and food which will now launch on September 15th.

Other stories discussed on the podcast include:

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Zimplistic Raises $30M for Robot Roti Maker

Zimplistic, the company behind the Rotimatic, has raised a $30 million Series C round, according to the Economic Times. The round was led by Credence Partners and EDBI, which is part of Singapore’s Economic Development Board, and brings Zimplistic’s total funding to $48.5 million.

The Rotimatic is, as the name implies, an automated roti maker. Roti is a flatbread that is a staple food for roughly 1 billion people around the world, according to Zimplistic. The connected countertop device automatically mixes, kneads, flattens, cooks and puffs each roti, and is able to make one per minute.

Rotimatic - One Touch for Fresh Rotis and Wraps

According to Rishin Israni, CEO and Co-Founder of Zimplistic, the company has 30,000 customers and generated $20 million in revenue last year. The Rotimaker is available in seven markets including the U.S., Singapore, the Middle East and Canada.

Costing $999, the Rotimatic isn’t cheap. But its smart updates will help justify that high price tag by adding the ability to make puris, masala rotis, pizza and tortillas.

The Rotimatic is one of a raft of robot devices coming for kitchen countertops. All of them aim to make your cooking life simpler: Gammachef makes pasta and stews, Yomee lets you make and chill your own yogurt, Bartesian mixes cocktails, and Breville’s Oracle crafts your morning cup of coffee. Your connected kitchen is going to need more cupboards.

Not all of these will succeed, but Zimplistic seems to be taking the right approach. It has a big addressable market, and focuses one thing — flatbread, which the Rotimatic can make faster and more consistently than a person. The ability to make pizza dough and tortillas will expand the Rotimatic market greatly while sticking with the core value of the product.

Podcast: The Restaurant Robots are Coming!

Would you want a robot serving you at a restaurant? We’ve already seen robots flip burgers in the kitchen and serve you coffee — but soon robots won’t be relegated to manual repetitive tasks. As robotics advances, robots will be able to take on more complex, nuanced tasks and move from the back of the house to the front.

On this week’s podcast, we’ve assembled a stellar panel to talk about our robot-filled future. Science and tech writer (and robot expert), Signe Brewster joins the show along with The Spoon Founder and Chief, Mike Wolf.

Together, we discuss not just restaurant robots, but the increasing presence of robots throughout the food chain, the difference between a robot and plain old automation, and whether Mike himself is in fact, a robot.

Neato Robotics Machines Are Coming To Clean Up After Dinner

Giacomo Marini isn’t afraid of the robot future – in fact, the company he leads is betting on it. Neato Robotics was founded by Standford alums Joe Augenbraun, Linda Pouliot and JB Gomez through the Stanford Entrepreneur Challenge and officially launched in 2010. The idea behind the company – that robots are just as capable of performing chores as humans – Neato has been working to develop advanced robotic technology for for vaccums in order to alleviate the stress and drain of modern life.

Neato has enjoyed success as a startup against rivals like Roomba and they have a heavy focus on intelligence and proprietary technology to create a self-cleaning vacuum with the smarts of a self-driving car. In fact, the company is the first and only group making robot vacuums with laser SLAM technology, best known for its use in the Google self-driving car, to map and navigate. Marini claims this technology is uniquely suited for indoor navigation and allows the robots to operate with precision in the dark.

Robotics and machine learning are two hot areas in Silicon Valley at the moment – and Marini is no stranger to success in the tech mecca. A co-founder of Logitech, Marini was part of the team that moved the Swiss-based company to Palo Alto in the early 1980s and credits much of the computer accessory company’s growth to that move. Marini went on to stay in Silicon Valley and run a venture capital firm and eventually join Neato as CEO in 2013.

Neato sees their vacuums playing an important role in making the clean up after meal prep and dinner much simpler. “Gone are the days when spilling flower on the floor while you cook would mean hauling out the heavy upright vacuum,” adds Marini. “Now you can simply use your voice to tell your Google Home or Amazon Alexa to start your Neato for you.” Neato recently added chatbot functionality for Facebook, jumping on another trend of using chatbots to control our homes – meaning you could shoot your vacuum a note to clean up the kitchen after dinner’s over from the backyard. 

Marini believes that the continued focus on user experience has been an essential component in the increase in connected device adoption. And – he points out – as the complexity of what our devices can do increases – that experience must remain the same. “As the capabilities of this technology become more complex, it’s imperative that the devices remain simple to interact with, so that our relationship with them feels natural and compelling.”

Ultimately, Neato Robotics wants to make products to give people more time. If we have tech to help us shop more efficiently and cook good food at home more simply, we should also be able to use tech to clean up, right? Marini agrees, saying “We’re at a pivotal point when the speed of emerging technologies make the human potential seem limitless. Our mission is to allow people to spend more their spare time on things that really matter – their passions, work, loved ones – and not on housework.”

Don’t miss Giacomo Marini, CEO of Neato Robotics at the 2017 Smart Kitchen Summit. Check out the full list of speakers and to register for the Summit, use code NEATO to get 25% off ticket prices.

The Smart Kitchen Summit is the first event to tackle the future of food, cooking and the kitchen with leaders across food, tech, commerce, design, delivery and appliances. This series will highlight panelists and partners for the 2017 event, being held on October 10-11 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle.