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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Spinn

Spinn Extracts $20M from Investors for its Connected Coffee Machine and Marketplace

Spinn, the makers of the connected coffee machine that uses centrifugal force when making a morning cup of joe, has raised $20 million in new funding. TechCrunch was first to report the news this morning, writing that the new round was led by Spark Capital with participation from Amazon’s Alexa Fund, Bar 9 Ventures and other existing investors. This brings the total amount raised by Spinn to $37 million.

The Spinn is perhaps best known for its looooooong journey to market. Spoon Founder Mike Wolf pre-ordered a Spinn back in 2016, and after years of delays, Mike finally got his machine in July of last year. Based on the Spinn website, new machines can be pre-ordered for delivery this Fall, and cost between $479 and $779, depending the accessories included.

The hook with Spinn is that it uses centrifugal force to, well, spin the coffee grounds for extraction rather than pressing. The machine spins the grounds more slowly for regular coffee, and higher for espessso-based drinks. The result, according to the company, is a more nuanced and flavorful cup of coffee.

In addition to its hardware, Spinn also has an online marketplace selling more than 700 different types of whole beans. During an interview at our Food Tech Live event in 2020, Spinn CEO Roderick de Rode told us that when users order coffee from Spinn, they can scan the bag with their phone and precise extraction instructions are sent to the machine.

We actually haven’t seen a ton of coffee-related news so far this year. The similar superautomatic Terra Kaffe coffee machine raised $4 million in November of last year. And Trade raised $9 million for its online coffee marketplace last September.

De Rode told TechCrunch that his company will use the new funding to further develop its brewing technology and scale up production to fulfill outstanding orders for the machine.

Terra Kaffe Raises $4 Million for Pod-Free Grind and Brew Coffee Maker

Terra Kaffe, a New York based startup that makes grind and brew coffee machines, has raised $4 million from The SeedLab, an early stage venture capital firm focused on consumer products.

The company had previously raised $575,000 in a seed funding late last year, and the new round of funding brings the company’s total to just under $5 million.

Last year, company CEO Sahand Dilmaghani showed me their coffee maker, the TK-01, and I liked what I saw. I also liked the fact that it was shipping, something that wasn’t the case (at the time) with my long-overdue Spinn.

Both machines are part of a growing category of grind and brew (also called superautomatic) coffee makers that make espresso-level coffee with the convenience of a Nespresso or Keurig, but without the plastic waste of pod-based systems. Nespresso and Keurig have come under fire in recent years for how much plastic they push into the waste stream, and while both are trying to make their pods more environment-friendly, it makes sense (and better coffee) if you can just grind from fresh within the system when you’re ready to brew.

In researching the TK-01 and the grind and brew market, one thing I noticed is how Terra Kaffe’s machine resembles a few other early grind and brew appliances on the market. And when I say resemble, I mean looks like an exact replica from an outward physical standpoint.

I asked Dilmaghani about this and he told me when he was getting the company off the ground, he didn’t have enough funding to custom design an entirely new coffee machine. This meant getting creative.

“The whole development is a story of trade offs,” said Dilmaghani in a phone interview. Instead of paying a company to create an entirely new product, they worked with a Chinese ODM (original design manufacturer) to build the hardware system architecture using some off the shelf parts such as brew unit and chassis (why there are others that look like the Terra Kaffe). Dilmaghani and his team focused on software, the UI and the overall consumer experience.

“I was like, ‘let’s prove out the market that there is an opportunity here'” said Dilmaghani. “Let’s work with as much off the shelf as possible, give people some awareness that this can sell DTC (direct-to-consumer), that it isn’t the Nespresso model that I have to lose money on the machine and only make money with recurring revenues. That you can make money on the product, and it can be a viable business.”

It’s a much different approach from Spinn, who designed a coffee maker from the ground up. The end result was a long drawn out design and manufacturing ramp-up process that took years to bring their product to market. In contrast, the TK-01 was available and shipping last year, and, according to Dilmaghani, has sold in the thousands.

And I imagine it’s this early sales success, not a complicated piece of hardware, that mattered to the company’s newest investors.

After Four Years, It Looks I’m Finally Going To Get My Spinn Coffee Maker

Well what do you know? It appears my long, nearly half-decade wait for the Spinn coffee maker is nearing an end.

That’s because I got an email last week letting me know that my Spinn is on its way. For those of you who have been following along, the company first started pitching their centrifugal coffee maker back in 2016. I ordered one early – in the first wave – and waited excitedly for my machine to arrive in 2017.

Only it didn’t, and before long Spinn stopped given expected ship dates. The months soon stretched into years. Backers became restless.

In the meantime, I documented the long and twisting journey of Spinn, from its continued delays to it a new funding round and more.

The company said they started shipping last year, but my research showed they had only really shipped early production models to beta testers, some of whom included the company’s own investors. This shipment appears to be the first one to a broader set of backers.

The company, which had seen a slight setback due to COVID-19 related shutdowns, had teased they had finished production ready for backers in their most recent monthly update:

Since our last update, our colleagues in China have been working very hard on setting up the production line, the pre-assembly, assembly, packaging, and preparing all units of this batch for international shipment. These days, being able to line up a production run is all the more exciting. Our teams across the globe have been hard at work catching up after the shutdowns due to COVID-19.

Despite a four year wait, I’m still pretty excited for my Spinn. I can’t tell you how many emails I received from other backers over the last couple years asking if they should give up and ask for a refund. What I always told them was that despite the long wait, the company’s detailed monthly production updates and news of their funding made it seem the Spinn team was working to get this thing done.

Now they finally have. Once I get it in a few weeks, I’ll have to see if the long wait was worth it.

Video: The Spinn Coffee Maker is For Real, a Chat With its CEO

The Spoon has been covering The Spinn saga basically since we founded the publication back in 2016. The high-tech crowdfunded coffee machine that uses centrigual force to extract coffee is, after all, three years overdue. Early backers of the product (including Spoon Founder Mike Wolf) are understandably… concerned that they would ever get theirs. But we have good news!

Spinn was at our Food Tech Live event in Las Vegas last week, bearing good news! Spinn Founder and CEO Roderick de Rode said the first Spinn units are shipping now in California. He also said there’s a “huge backlog” of orders, so those in other states will need to stay patient.

In this video interview de Rode explains a bit more about how the hardware works, but also outlines how Spinn is a coffee marketplace. The company has 462 partner coffee roasters selling their coffee on Spinn’s platform. Once you get a bag of beans, scan it with the Spinn app to bring up recipes for that roast and send them to the machine, which adjusts its extraction accordingly.

Whether or not you backed the Spinn, you should watch the full video to see one of the more unique coffee makers that are (finally) hitting the market.

CES 2020: A Look at the Spinn Grind and Brew Coffee Maker

Could it Be? Long Delayed Spinn Coffee Machine To Start Shipping This Month

Every month, the folks behind the Spinn grind & brew coffee maker post highly detailed updates on the progress they are making towards getting the long-delayed machine into the hands of backers.

Last month was was no different. On October 30, the company posted a meticulous update that went into detail on everything from the product’s real-time recipe generator to its mobile app development and user guide. However, unlike previous updates, this one had a little sentence near the end providing an actual timeline for initial deliveries:

Next month, Spinn will begin with its very first roll-out of machines to its earliest backers in California. Soon thereafter, we will begin with the fulfillment of other preorders.

Talk about burying the lede.

In reality, the announcement of initial shipments to early backers shouldn’t be a huge surprise for anyone who’s been following Spinn’s updates in recent months, which explain the slow-motion process of pushing the coffee machine into manufacturing.

For example, in September Spinn detailed the first engineering builds coming off the line of its contract manufacturer and getting delivered for final testing at the company headquarters in Amsterdam.

And with October’s update, it does appear Spinn is putting a bow on final preparations around delivering a working product, including building out the instruction manual and exploring the different chemicals consumers can use to perform descaling on the machine.

Spinn Coffee instruction manual excerpt

While I am cautiously skeptical, there’s no doubt that the company shipping product is good news for anyone who, like me, has been waiting literally years to get their Spinn.

A glance at the comments in Spinn’s forum shows that other early customers are, for the most part, excited that the company is starting to ship.

The only remaining question for me is when will other early backers see their Spinn. I was in the first wave of customers and expected to see the Spinn pretty soon after first shipments but, for some reason, the company is shipping to what looks like a small subsegment of backers in California first. My guess is they are looking to test the product in the field first before ramping up to full production.

Let’s hope that goes quickly and I’ll see my Spinn before Christmas.

The Food Tech Show: The Perilous Existence of Bike-Riding Food Delivery Drivers

It’s been a big week in restaurant tech news, so the Spoon gang got together to record a podcast.

In this episode of the Food Tech Show, we discuss:

  • Starbucks deal with Brightloom (formerly Eatsa) and what it means for the restaurant tech market
  • The New York Times piece about a day in the life of food delivery drivers
  • Uber’s all-in-one app for food, bikes and rideshares
  • Mike’s first-world coffee machine struggle with whether he should have waited for the Terra Kaffe, even as the Spinn nears a ship date

As always, you can hit play below or listen to the Food Tech Show podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Spinn Coffee’s First Shipment is ‘Imminent’ as Company Raises $2.5 Million in Additional Financing

Well, what do you know?

It looks like the Spinn, a high-profile, well-funded grind and brew coffee maker that’s over two years late, is about to ship. That’s at least according to the latest company update, which features a detailed rundown of the company’s effort to finalize the product and get it out to early customers.

From the post:

Our first shipment is imminent and many factors need to be taken into consideration to make sure your machines are not damaged in transit. Vibrations, shocks, pressure loads, changes in temperature and/or changes in air humidity can damage the units and their packaging as they make their way to your doorstep.

And when I say detailed, I mean detailed. The post discusses packaging design, drop tests, edge crush tests, and so much more. Heck, they even show GIFs of the packages being dropped by a robot:

All of which conveys, rather successfully, that the company is close to shipping the product.

To which I say: it’s about time. Not only does the company have a long line of impatient customers eager to get their hands on the machine, but they also face increased competition from others like Terra Kaffee who are rolling out coffee machines with similar features.

And to fund the final push, it looks like the company raised additional financing. According to Crunchbase, Spinn raised an additional $2.5 million in financing via a convertible note on a $40 million company valuation.

Here’s how the company positioned the raise in their June update:

Building a business, developing an online platform and hardware is a costly process. Spinn sold a massive amount of pre-orders to tens of thousands of people that are eager to get their hands on a Spinn machine. Without our pre-order backers and our investors Spinn wouldn’t be able to grow and build what we’ve built to date. In December we raised our last round and we’re now in the process of closing our next. This money is raised to invest in expansion of the team, R&D, manufacturing and growth of the company.

If it seems like raising more money six months after they raised $3 million in funding is soon, that’s because it is. My guess is that they used the December funding for the continued development of the Spinn and needed to raise more money to fund inventory for both existing backers and new ones.

So fingers crossed. I ordered the Spinn almost three years ago and, like many, have held out.  It wasn’t easy, especially since, to their credit, the company has continued to offer to refunds to those who asked. Based on many of the emails I get from former backers, it seems many have taken them up on it.

But every now and then patience is rewarded and for those of us longtime backers who have waited for our the grind and brew centrifugal coffee brewing system, we may soon have our Spinn.

Newsletter: Food Tech is Going Big Time in 2019

My dad is buying a June Oven.

Normally, I wouldn’t foist the day-to-day tech purchases of the Albrecht family on our Spoon readers, but it occurred to me that this particular decision is somewhat emblematic of where the entire food tech sector is at, and why 2019 could be a watershed year for the industry at large.

Why does my septuagenarian father, who normally doesn’t give a whit about gadgets, want a June? Because it’s automated, repeatable and to him, safer. He likes how the June will cook meat to the proper temperature automatically, that he’ll get the same result every time, and how he doesn’t have to worry about whether or not he left the stove on when he’s out and about. And I’m sure he’s not an outlier.

The second-gen June is among a raft of smart cooking appliances coming to market. The Brava, second-gen Tovala, and the forthcoming Suvie have the ability to turn everyday people into people who cook every day. And as these appliances get more affordable, the audience for them is moving beyond early adopters and into the mainstream.

We’ve seen this greater interest in food tech reflected in our readership. Our audience grew by 186 percent since January of this year, and we had our fourth and biggest ever Smart Kitchen Summit in Seattle this October. It’s not just smart ovens that people want to know about. This year, our readers have loved stories on alternate proteins, news about the changing delivery landscape, CBD products, food robots, food personalization and more.

All this is to say that food tech is being called up to the big leagues in a big way in 2019. Speaking of which, you should check out some of our specific predictions for the coming year. Catherine Lamb wrote about the coming rise of CBD edibles. Jenn Marston said to watch out for more ghost kitchens and drone deliveries. And I raised my articulating hand to say that 2019 will be a breakthrough year for food robots.

But before we pop the champagne get all Auld Lang Syne, let’s take a look at the last bit of big food tech news in 2018.

Mike Wolf got the scoop on the much-delayed Spinn Coffee maker raising $3 million. Will this cash infusion mean that the connected coffee maker will finally make it to market?

For those budding or serial entrepreneurs looking for a little help with their food tech ambitions next year, Jenn put together a list of big CPG company accelerators like those from Land O’ Lakes and Coca-Cola.

As Amazon Gos continue to pop up around the country, the debate over who gets to participate in the cashless retail revolution will heat up. One company looking to make the Go experience available to all is All_ebt. We confirmed this week that All_ebt’s users on SNAP assistance will be able to shop (for USDA approved items) at cashless grocery stores like Go.

And finally, if you are looking for a new holiday tradition — may we suggest you be like Catherine and her family and hold a White Castle eating contest which, thanks to the Impossible slider, is now open to vegetarians!

It’s been a fantastic year. Thank you for being with us throughout 2018, we look forward to even bigger and better things in 2019.

Happy New Year!

Be kind.
-Chris

In the 12/28/2018 edition:

Burritos by Air Highlight Noisy Headaches Associated with Drone Delivery

By Chris Albrecht on Dec 28, 2018 08:08 am
There was a lot of chatter about drones this past year: Uber Eats is accelerating its drone ambitions, Zomato acquired a drone company in India, Amazon got a patent for in-flight drone recharging. There was so much activity that my colleague, Jenn Marston predicted that 2019 will be a big year for delivery by drones. […]

Big Food Has Big Plans for Foodtech Accelerators in 2019

By Jennifer Marston on Dec 27, 2018 01:39 pm
Just a little less than a year ago, we highlighted what was then a new trend the foodtech space: major CPGs launching food accelerators geared towards emerging brands. From Chobani to General Mills to Kraft-Heinz, it seemed Big Food had an appetite for assisting younger, trendier, and often healthier brands to grow in 2018. Some […]

Video: Bellwether Cuts Out the Coffee Roasting Middleman

By Catherine Lamb on Dec 27, 2018 09:00 am
“A lot of people don’t realize just how big coffee is,” said Nathan Gilliland, CEO of Bellwether Coffee at the 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit. Seriously, though: according to him, coffee is the most consumed beverage in the U.S., with people drinking more cups of joe than bottles of water, wine, and beer combined. Not only are […]

My Whole Family Tried the Impossible Slider from White Castle (and Loved It)

By Catherine Lamb on Dec 27, 2018 06:00 am
My family has a… rather unique Christmas tradition. For Christmas Eve lunch, when the 15-odd crew of us gather at my grandparents’ home outside of Cincinnati, OH, we have a White Castle slider eating competition. The record: twenty-one. (Blegh.) As a vegetarian I usually have to abstain from this tradition. But this year, oh this year, […]

What Amazon Did (and Didn’t) Mention in its Holiday Sales Press Release

By Chris Albrecht on Dec 26, 2018 11:00 am
With Christmas now over it’s time for the annual releasing of the vague holiday sales stats from Amazon! This year, Bezos’ behemoth did not disappoint and shared with us a press announcement filled with unspecific terms like “record breaking” and “millions more.” As we said back in November, though these puff pieces from Amazon are […]

Spinn Raises $3 Million As It Eyes Production Of Long-Delayed Coffee Machine

By Michael Wolf on Dec 26, 2018 09:00 am
Spinn, the grind and brew centrifugal coffee machine that is nearly two years past its original ship date, has raised an additional $3 million in funding that it plans to use to ramp up production of its coffee maker. The funding announcement came as part of an update to early buyers via the company’s community […]

Delivery in 2019 Will Be About Ghost Kitchens, Drones, and Boone, North Carolina

By Jennifer Marston on Dec 26, 2018 06:00 am
The food delivery craze will normalize at some point, but not soon. Right now, it’s a segment projected to be worth $365 billion by 2013, and even companies with inherently undeliverable foods are delivering. All of which is to say, food delivery holds a well-earned spot on the list of 2019 hot topics. Major delivery […]

2019 Will Be a Breakthrough Year for Food Robots

By Chris Albrecht on Dec 25, 2018 06:00 am
Right now the year 2019 is still (slightly) in the future, but 2019 will also be a year where we start to feel like we’re living in the future. The reason for that can be summed up in one word: ROBOTS. The food robots are coming and while they won’t become ubiquitous next year, 2019 […]

All_EBT Allows Those Underbanked to Participate in (Some) Cashless Retail

By Chris Albrecht on Dec 24, 2018 12:00 pm
The number of Amazon Go stores are set to explode over the coming years, and while the grab-and-go convenience stores are a marvel of modern technology, they also raise thorny ethical issues surrounding cashless retail. You can only use Amazon Go if you have an Amazon account, and to get an Amazon account you need […]

Whirlpool Awarded Comprehensive Patent For Kitchen-Centric Computer Vision System

By Michael Wolf on Dec 24, 2018 10:00 am
Over the past couple years, there’s been what can only be described as an intellectual property land grab in the world of computer vision as Google, Amazon and Microsoft file more patents in an effort to establish foundations from which to launch an innumerable amount of AI-driven products and services over the next decade or more. […]

Spinn Raises $3 Million As It Eyes Production Of Long-Delayed Coffee Machine

Spinn, the grind and brew centrifugal coffee machine that is nearly two years past its original ship date, has raised an additional $3 million in funding that it plans to use to ramp up production of its coffee maker.

The funding announcement came as part of an update to early buyers via the company’s community forum. The update indicated that the funding comes from a “Swiss strategic investor” and that it will be used to invest in engineering and production teams and to produce the coffee machine in volume. Combined with past funding, the new round brings Spinn’s total funding to approximately $10 million.

From the post:

“…we raised another $3M from a Swiss strategic investor for the continued expansion of the engineering and manufacturing team, investment in the production lines and tools to produce Spinn machines in large quantities. The investment allows us to proceed with our operations and we are confident we’ll deliver something unique and valuable to our early backers and future customers.”

Earlier this month, I had written about the company’s long delay and how those who had purchased the machine early via the company’s website were getting restless as the company continued to market it and push their coffee marketplace. Because the company has been actively hawking its coffee via social media and email marketing, it’s totally within character then that the funding news was part of a larger announcement in which the company indicated it would also provide Spinn customers with a free annual membership to their coffee subscription service, Spinn Primo.

Reaction to the subscription offer from early Spinn customers still waiting for their coffee machine amounted to one of a collective eyeroll. As one commenter wrote, “I am not using the Spinn Marketplace yet because I do not have a coffee maker other than one that uses pods.” Another wrote, “Would love to have the free coffee if I had a coffee maker to make it in!”

For these customers and others (such as myself), the good news is that with the new cash infusion, the likelihood of Spinn shipping its coffee machine suddenly seems a lot higher than it did just a month ago. As they indicate in the update, the company still has a significant number of things on the to-do list : more engineering, acquisition of tooling for mass production, purchasing of parts inventory to name a few.

The arrival of external funding also relieves pressure to push the sale of new orders to fund investment in further engineering and production. Up until recently, the company had continued to sell products at a perpetual discount. This month, the same month the news of the funding arrived, the company went to full pricing for new products for what appears to be the first time.

The bad news? The company still hasn’t given a firm timeline for when the Spinn will ship. However, Spinn has indicated another update is forthcoming this month, so, hopefully, it will let us know when we might see the grind and brew coffee maker.

Finally, more funding is no guarantee of a finished product. We’ve seen a number of high-profile hardware startups (in food and beyond) go out of business over the past few years as they struggle to bring products to market. We’ll be keeping a close eye on Spinn to see if this new funding is enough to push the product across the finish line and get it out to backers.

Spoon Newsletter: LG’s HomeBrew Appliance, Spinn Update, World’s First Cell-Grown Steak

This is the post version of our weekly newsletter. If you’d like to get the weekly Spoon in your inbox, you can subscribe here.

When it comes to smart kitchen startups, there is no shortage of companies trying to change how we make our morning cup of joe.

One of the highest profile startups in this space over the past couple of years is Spinn, maker of a grind-brew coffee machine that utilizes a patented centrifugal brewing technology. I was intrigued enough with the company and its tech to plop down over $300 to join the first “batch” of orders in 2016, but almost two years past the promised ship date, I’m still waiting for my Spinn.

The company has hit some snags as they work to get their coffee maker to customers. While many of the Spinn’s early customers have been understandably frustrated, it appears most are hanging on, intrigued by the company’s periodic updates showing progress on the product. If they’re like me, I suspect many are getting frustrated with a company that continues to advertise and sell their overdue appliance, all the while creating more and more distance between new customers and those still waiting at the front of the line.

Still, I know I have no one to blame for investing my money in a Spinn with the knowledge that coffee startup products have been historically risky investments. With companies like ZPM and Arist turning out to be colossal misses and others like Bonaverde sputtering along for years and periodically shipping out products, I knew full well that I might never see the product. In the end, I may have been better off putting my money towards a Tesla like Spoon reader Rebecca:

“I put money down for this machine in Nov. 2016 (I’m a 1st batch-er) and at around the same time my husband put down money for a Tesla Model 3. At least I now have a smooth ride to the coffee shop!”

You can read my latest update on my Spinn journey here.

Coffee isn’t the only category that can be rough sailing for new startups. The home brew market has been notoriously tough as well, with companies like HOPii and iGulu struggling to ship and others like BrewArt and Brewie failing to get much traction.

Still, this hasn’t stopped South Korean consumer electronics giant LG from jumping into the game. The company recently announced they would debut a new home brewing device by the name of the LG HomeBrew at CES.  The capsule-based beer brewing appliance, which makes roughly the same amount of beer as a PicoBrew Pico per cycle, is expected to ship sometime next year.

What’s interesting to me is a company like LG usually only gets into a business if they see a high volume opportunity, which begs the question what will they do to differentiate their product?  While PicoBrew has certainly raised awareness around automated beer brewing, the company has yet to make home brewing a mass-market hobby, something I am sure LG hopes they can do.

Either way, next year promises to be an interesting one when it comes to tech-powered boozing at home. About a month ago, Keurig and AB InBev launched Drinkworks, a capsule-based instant serve cocktail, cider and beerbot machine expected to ship in limited quantities next year.

While home bev-tech space continues to slowly gestate, the pro market continues to move along at a rapid clip. Just this week, a robot powered bartender by the name of UR5e debuted at Broncos Stadium. The new bartenderbot is essentially robotic arm that grabs a beer cup and fills it (through the bottom, no less) for waiting customers.

Moving beyond beverage bots, this week also saw the introduction of a new sidewalk delivery bot from Postmates that goes by the name of Serve. Serve, which looks like the lovechild of Minion and Starship deliverybot, is expected to roll out in Los Angeles over the next year. And speaking of food delivery, this week Chris wrote about the breakup of Amazon and Instacart, something that’s been rumored ever since the big online retailer acquired Whole Foods.

There’s lots more great analysis to catch up from this past week, including looks at the first cell-grown steak and what the new farm bill means for CBD, so make sure to check it out.

That’s it for now. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you next week!

Mike

In the 12/14/2018 edition:

Presto Eats May Be the Most On-Trend Meal Kit Company Yet. But Will It Succeed?

By Catherine Lamb on Dec 14, 2018 11:16 am
Whenever I get word about a new meal kit company, it’s hard not to be immediately skeptical. It’s no secret that meal kits are struggling: Chef’d surprised everyone when it shut down abruptly earlier this year. Boston hyper-local meal kit Just Add Cooking ceased operations this fall. And Blue Apron’s stock continues to underwhelm.

The Denver Broncos Get a Beer Pouring Robot at Mile High Stadium

By Chris Albrecht on Dec 14, 2018 08:04 am
While the Denver Broncos may be in the midst of a losing season, they could win over fans this weekend when a new robot starts dispensing Bud Light at Mile High Stadium (h/t The Washington Post). You’d think that such a mechanical miracle would have a fancy name like the “Robo-Bronco” or the “Elway 3000,” […]

Startups! They’re Just Like Us! Amazon and Instacart Break Up

By Chris Albrecht on Dec 13, 2018 04:00 pm
Like Ben and Jennifer, Brad and Angelina, and Cardi B and Offset*, Instacart and Amazon have broken up. In a blog post today, Instacart announced that it was winding down (consciously uncoupling?) its grocery delivery relationship with Amazon. Like with so many other power couples, this breakup wasn’t entirely a surprise.

The Farm Bill Just Passed — What Does That Mean for the CBD Market?

By Catherine Lamb on Dec 13, 2018 02:08 pm
After months of back and forth, Congress voted yesterday to pass the 2018 Farm Bill. The $867 million bill contains lots of wide-reaching legislative measures, like expanded farm subsidies, SNAP revisions, and permanent funding for farmers markets. But perhaps most interestingly, the bill legalizes the production and sale of hemp at a federal level.

What Bowery’s Latest Funding Round Says About Indoor Farming

By Jennifer Marston on Dec 13, 2018 12:00 pm
New Jersey-based indoor-farming startup Bowery announced yesterday that it has raised $90 million in fresh funding. The round was led by Alphabet Inc.’s GV with participation from Temasek and Almanac Ventures, General Catalyst and GGV Capital (Bowery’s Series A investors), and various seed investors. Bowery produces what founder Irving Fain calls “post-organic produce.”

ImpactVision Raises $1.3M Led by Maersk

By Chris Albrecht on Dec 13, 2018 10:11 am
ImpactVision, a startup that uses hyperspectral imaging to assess food quality, has raised $1.3 million, according to VentureBeat. The round was led by logistics and transportation company Maersk, and brings the total amount raised by ImpactVision to $2.9 million. As we wrote last year about ImpactVision: Using a combination of digital imaging, spectroscopy and machine learning, […]

Postmates Debuts its own Bright-Eyed Delivery Robot

By Chris Albrecht on Dec 13, 2018 06:00 am
You know what you can look forward to in 2019? More robots (but more on that in a later post). Case in point: delivery service Postmates announced today that it has developed its own autonomous delivery rover that will be hitting sidewalks next year. Dubbed Serve, the li’l robot is a bright yellow square-shaped box […]

Hi Fidelity Genetics Raises $8.5M for AI-Driven Plant Breeding

By Chris Albrecht on Dec 13, 2018 04:00 am
Hi Fidelity Genetics (HFG), which combines sensors, data and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve plant breeding, today announced that it has raised an $8.5 million Series A led by Fall Line Capital and Finistere Ventures. This brings the total amount raised by HFG to $11.5 million. There are two parts to the HFG system.

Deliveroo Goes Back to the Future with Brick and Mortar Food Hall

By Catherine Lamb on Dec 12, 2018 04:00 pm
You know how they say that in fashion, everything old comes back around and eventually is new again? It seems that the same might be true for restaurants. This week London-based food delivery startup Deliveroo opened up its first brick-and-mortar location in Hong Kong (h/t CNBC). The so-called Delivery Food Hall is home to five […]

Waitr to Acquire Bite Squad for $321.3M

By Jennifer Marston on Dec 12, 2018 02:00 pm
Online delivery platform Waitr has announced plans to acquire third-party delivery service Bite Squad for $321.3 million. The purchase price is a mix of cash and shares of common stock of Waitr. Both companies serve small- to mid-sized U.S. markets. Waitr is a full platform from online order and delivery. Restaurants partnering with the company […]

Almost Two Years Late, Spinn Keeps Spinning as Backers Become More Restless

If patience is a virtue, at what point does a man of virtue become a fool for waiting too long for his overdue grind and brew connected coffee maker?

It’s a question I ask myself every week or two about the Spinn, a machine that is, as I write this, almost two years past the original ship date promised to me and other early buyers who plopped down $300 or more.

The reason I think about the tardy coffee machine so often is I get an email every week or two asking me if I’ve heard any news about the Spinn.

Below is a recent example:

Dear Mike, I was an early backer in Dec. 2016 and I have not heard from them in ages. Is this just a complete scam and is there anyway to get my money back?

Mary

So why do the Marys of the world come to me for an update? In part, because I’m the only tech writer still bothering to keeping tabs on the long-overdue project, but I think the main reason is that the company has done such a poor job giving guidance on when exactly the machine will ship.

In fact, they’ve largely given up on giving any guidance at all.

It didn’t use to be this way. Early on the company said it would ship sometime in spring of 2017. When they missed that date, they pointed to first half 2018. Eventually, they stopped giving any guidance in their periodic updates, but up to just a couple months ago, a message on the home page right below the order button said that the fifth “batch” would ship year-end 2018.

As a first “batch” customer, every time I saw that I would always think, ‘huh, when will mine be here?’

Adding to the frustration is whenever I ask the company about the status of the machine, the only response I (and others) get is to suggest we log into our account for an update on our shipping status. What does that get me? A message telling me my ship date has yet to be announced:

 

My Spinn account screen

It’s not like the company’s gone entirely dark. Spinn has a community forum where they update early customers every month or two on the status of the coffee machine. These updates go into excruciating detail on how the company is working to improve the early beta products and are filled with photos of torn down products…

…and with people working diligently in labs…

…and with highly granular descriptions of every aspect of the machine and how they are working to optimize it…

A portion of the September/October update from Spinn community update

Lots and lots of information, but nothing about when the product will ship.

The forum also has a community discussion board where customers can discuss the updates. Most of the discussions revolve around one central question – when is Spinn going to ship the machine – and, as you can imagine, many people aren’t happy at the lack of guidance.

But the most frustrating thing is the company continues to advertise about the Spinn. Below is an image that popped up in my Instagram feed recently:

A Spinn coffee machine advertisement on Instagram

And as the company continues to pitch their hardware on social media like Instagram and Facebook, they continue to blast out emails advertising their coffee marketplace.

So what do I say TO the Marys of the world who ask me if the Spinn is a scam? I’ve always said no and continue to believe this. The reason is scammers don’t get issued patents for their innovations, nor do they offer full refunds (something the company still offers for backers).

Instead, I think Spinn is a company that has hit some snags in getting the machine to market and is continuing to fund the development of the product through sales of coffee and new machines they have yet to ship.  If that is indeed what is happening, while not a scam, it’s certainly a dangerous game to play. It’s also something that has led me and others to start to run out of patience.

All that said, I’ve continued and will continue to stick it out, in part because the Spinn sounds like an intriguing coffee machine, one which I believe the company is trying its hardest to ship.

As for Mary and others who ask about getting their money back, I’m torn.  I may be a fool with my own money, but I don’t want to give bad advice to others on what they should do with their hard-earned dough.

The company points to mid-2019 as the ship date for new orders, which means manufacturing of the product will need to start very soon if they plan to deliver to those of us in the front of the line.  If they don’t give a hard ship date by the end of January, it might be time to ask for that refund.

The Spinn Coffee Maker Is Still MIA For Early Backers

(Update: You can see the December 2018 update on my Spinn journey here.)

In 2016, I backed a high-tech coffee maker called the Spinn.

At the time, I was enticed by the combined grind & brew capability of the Wi-Fi connected coffee maker, but the real reason I bought the Spinn was its patented centrifugal brewing technology. The tech, which I talked to the inventor about on a podcast back in 2016, uses a high-speed centrifuge to extract crema-like coffee brews down to the individual cup level.

It all sounded pretty good to me, so I coughed up $300 and waited for my new coffee maker. However, now with the product’s original mid-2017 and revised first quarter 2018 ship dates in the history books, I’m left wondering: will I ever get my Spinn?

I’m not the only one. A casual perusal of the company’s forums or Facebook page shows that many of early backers of the Spinn are getting restless. Throw in the multiple emails I get per week asking me if I’d heard anything (from the volume of email I get about the Spinn, I gather I may be the only journalist monitoring the progress of the product) and it seems like the company has a bit of a trust problem on its hands.

Now, it’s not like the company hasn’t been communicating. They’ve actually done a pretty good job of sending out periodic updates via its forum. The problem for the company is that once they missed their original ship date of mid-2017, they started telling all the first batch purchasers of the Spinn they’d see their coffee makers by the end of the first quarter in 2018. But by the time March rolled around, the company had moved the goal posts once again and said they were only sending machines out to “beta testers”.

Now as with any crowdfunding campaign, I knew I was taking a risk when I bought the Spinn back in 2016. But I’d backed lots of hardware projects over the past few years, and Spinn seemed to check all the boxes. Not only did they have patented technology that was differentiated, but they’d also licensed their technology to Nespresso to use in the newest line of that company’s pod-based brewing machines.

But almost two years later, I’m starting to worry I may have guessed wrong. Not only has the company missed two ship dates and is being vague about when the product will actually ship, but when I asked to talk to a “beta tester”, the company told me they cannot connect me to beta testers as they are “still going through iterations and bugs.”  Add in other potential warning signs like the departure of the Spinn technology inventor last year and one can see why I and other early backers are starting to worry.

To its credit, the company has offered myself and others a refund, but for now I’m going to continue to hang in there because I still really want a Spinn. However, like other early backers, I’ll be more skeptical about any deadlines the company gives since the company missed a long-promised ship date. At this point, I’m just hoping to see my Spinn sometime before Christmas so I can brew the coffee roasted with the Kelvin home coffee roaster, yet another high-tech coffee gadget I backed through crowdfunding.