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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Millo

Millo’s New Motorless Blender Features ‘Magnetic Air Drive’

Millo is back.

Founded in 2015, Millo is a food tech appliance company that jumped into the market with an innovative small blender that produced smoothies and other blended concoctions with a quiet motor. As company Adam Trakselis, CEO, told The Spoon that the idea for the initial product came from the fact that the machine he used for his post-exercise blended beverages was so loud it woke his family. “So I would have to wait until everyone wakes up to use the blender.”

The noise issue led Trakselis to look for solutions to an appliance that hasn’t seen much innovation for decades. The first iteration of Millo sold around 1,000 units, but supply-chain issues with semiconductors forced the Lithuanian company to look for a new path. That new path is the Millo Air, the company’s next generation of the product which they just launched on Kickstarter.

Millo Air operates using a magnetic air drive (aka MAD). This axial flux stator generates magnetic fields, which turn a magnetic disc inside the blending lid without any physical connection. Without any turning parts inside the base, it is extremely quiet. In addition, the new model is smaller than the first generation making it even more portable. The drive, however, is more powerful than the original, with a top speed of 15,000 RPM.

According to the company, the first blender version received product innovation awards from IFA Berlin 2019 – the largest consumer electronics show in Europe, and was the SKS Startup Showcase winner in 2019. Moreover, in 2021 Millo received an award from Amazon as one of the top 20 most innovative products launching on its platform.

Trakselis has a vision for using a magnetic air drive far beyond his new blender. As he stated, “Our goal is to innovate the kitchen industry and to reduce electronics waste at its core by producing ten times fewer appliances. We are on a mission to establish magnetic air drive as a new sustainable kitchen standard – a home kitchen needs only one magnetic drive to power all the rotation needed devices.”

For example, a major appliance company can use the Lithuanian invention in a kitchen range. The stove can have a mix of induction burners and a magnetic air drive that can be used to power small appliances. Because of Millo’s successful use of MAD in its new product, other major manufacturers in the kitchen space have been in contact to explore use cases and partnerships. “You have one single cooktop that can have an induction for heating, and we have magnetic coupling fabrication. And if you combine them, you have one solution for all your needs in the kitchen, which is seamless,” he said.

Turning to the new Kickstarter, the company hopes to use some of the lessons learned from its initial campaign in targeting influencers and being more thoughtful about its channels. Five years of experience, the CEO says, has provided the company with some valuable marketing lessons. The campaign to raise £8,817 ($10,038) will last 30 days with the minimum pledge of £152 ($175) to land a Millo Air along with a smart blending lid, an on-the-go cup, drinking lid, charger, and magnetic hook. The Millo Air is expected to retail for $299 after the Kickstarter drive is over.

Video: Millo’s Wireless Power and Induction Heating Table Looks Pretty Hot

Millo, which is best known for its wireless upside down blender (and winner of the Startup Innovation Award at our Smart Kitchen Summit last year), showed off a new product category for the company at CES last week. It’s a kitchen table that sports wireless power for appliances as well as an induction heating surface.

The company posted a video on LinkedIn demoing how the table works:

Granted, this is a controlled demo, but it looks really cool. At first, it’s just a regular table, albeit a very sleek and modern one. Wave your hand over it and areas of the table light up to act as either a cooking surface or a wireless power generator. Run your finger over another set of controls to increase the heat or amount of power. In the demo they blend up and cook a crepe all on the same surface, no wires or plugs (though we wonder how many crepes the Millo person had to eat over the course of the week).

That Millo introduced this smart table at CES isn’t a surprise. The company had teased it in advance of the show. Millo didn’t offer up many details other than that it’s powered by Millo’s Magnetic Air Drive (MAD) technology.

While the Millo demo certainly looks cool, we’ll have to see how many appliance makers choose to adopt the technology. The Wireless Power Consortium has been working on wireless power in the kitchen for years. It’s behind the already adopted Qi mobile wireless power standard, has a ton of industry partners, and in 2019 announced its Ki wireless power standard for the kitchen.

Still. It’s nice to see a scrappy blender startup aim big and try to, uhh, mix things up.

Millo, Maker of the Apple-like Cordless Blender, to Debut “MAD” Kitchen Table at CES

For tech reporters, late December is the best of times and the worst of times. The holidays are the best and give us a couple days off from the daily grind. But right after the holidays is the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), so our mailboxes are now inundated with thousands of pitches touting new gadgets.

Yesterday Millo, makers of the eponymous cordless blender (and Innovation award winner at our recent Smart Kitchen Summit), posted a picture on Linkedin of its new product — a smart kitchen table — that will debut at CES next month.

It appears to be a wireless power table, capable of powering kitchen appliances without the need for cords, plugs or adapters (though obviously they’d need a wireless power capable device).

We reached out to Aivaras Bakanas, Millo’s Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer, to find out more, but he only offered a couple additional, vague details, like that the table uses magnetic air drive (MAD) technology.

Wireless power is something of a holy grail for the kitchen. The ability to power a device like a coffee maker simply by setting it on a countertop would reduce clutter (no more cords) and allow for more efficient use of space because you can use that counterspace for food prep when not powering devices.

The Wireless Power Consortium has been working on this problem for years and in September announced the Ki wireless power standard for powering kitchen countertop appliances. From that press release:

The Ki Cordless Kitchen standard works with any non-metal countertop or table surface, including marble, slate, granite, laminates, wood and many others. Enabled appliances communicate with the transmitter through near-field communication (NFC), a safe, inexpensive and pervasive technology currently used around the world in bankcards, door locks, passports, transport tickets, and more.

Based on a comment Bakanas left on Linkedin, it doesn’t seem like Millo is hopping on board with this Ki standard, saying that his company’s MAD drive was “much better” because it “can have any kind of rotation, and induction in this table.”

While that may be true, the Wireless Power Consortium is the incumbent with a ton of industry partners and track record with the widely adopted Qi wireless standard.

Regardless of whether this will be an uphill struggle for Millo, it’s cool to see the company has bigger ambitions beyond blending you a morning smoothie.

SKS Hot Seat: Millo’s Aivaras Bakanas on The Ripple Effect of Smart, Silent Kitchen Appliances

I always feel a little guilty because I wake up a good hour before my roommates and one of the first things I do is make my morning smoothie. And our blender is loud.

Maybe I should think about investing in a Millo. The startup makes a platform with a powerful motor run by magnets, which is much quieter than a traditional motor. Their first product is a cordless, stylish blender, which impressed folks at SKS 2019 so much that Millo ended up winning the Innovation Award for the SKS Startup Showcase.

After collecting their award, we invited Aivaras Bakanas, co-founder and COO of Millo, to our SKS hot seat to answer a few questions about the company’s technology and what kitchen appliances they’ll be tackling next (hint: coffee grinders). Check out the video below and be on the lookout for more videos from SKS 2019 to hit The Spoon soon!

SKS Hot Seat Interview: Aivaras Bakanas of Millo

Millo Is Reinventing the Blender to Make it Quieter, Sleeker and Smarter

You probably have a blender in your house. It’s probably… fine. But what if your blender could not only make you a really good smoothie, but do it silently — and look pretty dang cool in the process?

That’s exactly what Millo, a new startup reinventing the blender, is trying to do. They’re one of the finalists in the Startup Showcase at our Smart Kitchen Summit {SKS} food tech conference. We spoke with Ruslanas Adam Trakšelis, the co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Millo, to learn more about how the company is improving upon one of the most common household staples. Check out the Q&A below then grab a ticket to watch him and the other Startup Showcase finalists pitch live next week! We only have a few left (seriously), so get on it if you’re interested.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

First thing’s first: give us your 15-second elevator pitch.
MILLO is the blender reinvented as a smart gadget. Using unparalleled magnetic clutch and a brushless motor called AirDrive, the MILLO has no bulky-looking mechanical parts and stands out by its sleek Scandinavian premium/minimalist design. MILLO is cordless, buttonless and fully portable. Its smart electronics, together with firmware, enable real-time tracking of changes in liquid consistency, which allows extreme precision and creates a new dimension in recipes that are conveniently shared within the Millo app.

What inspired you to start your company?
MILLO was born out of the frustration experienced by everyone who makes smoothies. Usual blenders are noisy, messy and hard to wash. After a number of occasions in which I woke up my newly-born daughter while making my post-workout morning smoothie, I decided to reinvent the blender.

The moment of inspiration came when I was watching my daughter playing with a toy which rotated two dancing figures with magnets. That inspired me to develop AirDrive, a motor based on the magnetic coupling. The AirDrive technology eliminates mechanical friction of engine parts, thus the noise level is reduced significantly and I don’t disturb my family’s sleep.

What’s the most challenging part of getting a food tech startup off the ground?
I believe this is not related to food tech startups in particular, but startups in general — the main challenge is to find the right people who believe in the project the same way as you do, or close to it. Not only co-workers, but also investors, advisers, etc.

How will your company change the day-to-day life of consumers and the food space as a whole?
Today’s lifestyles have us more overworked and time-poor than ever, with our bodies and our well-being suffering as a consequence. Obesity, heart disease, and stress-related illnesses are some of the greatest threats to our health today. But we don’t need devices telling us to break our bad habits — we need technology to help us to leave them behind.

MILLO is not just an improved blender, but a true gadget specifically designed to help us integrate a better diet and nutrition to our modern, busy lifestyles. It takes the noise, mess, and hassle out of blending, making it easier than ever to make the right choices

Get one of the last remaining tickets to SKS to watch Trakšelis pitch onstage with the other Startup Showcase finalists! We’ll see you there.