Chef Robotics secures $14.75M for AI kitchen automation

Chef Robotics has announced that it has secured a combo equity/debt round amounting to $14.75M. This follows a raise of $7.7M in 2021, bringing the total funding to $22.5M, which includes $18.2M in equity and $4.25M in debt.

• Company Background: Chef Robotics, based in San Francisco, was founded just before the onset of COVID-19, which led to shutdowns and labor shortages that are still affecting industries like fast food.

• Key Investors: The round saw participation from MaC Venture Capital, MFV Partners, Interwoven Ventures, and Alumni Ventures, who joined existing investors Construct Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Promus Ventures, and Red and Blue Ventures.

• Use of Funds: A significant portion of the funding will be channeled into implementing Chef’s go-to-market strategy, centered around a RaaS (robotics-as-a-service) model. The company also plans to expand its team of engineers and technicians.

• Unique Value Proposition: CEO Rajat Bhageria shares that Chef Robotics differentiates itself by concentrating on food assembly, as opposed to cooking.

• Product Offering: ChefOS, the software driving its robot arm’s operations, is another highlight. The technology adjusts to the vast variety of food preparation techniques and storage conditions by using sensors like cameras to collect data and train models for manipulating a broad range of ingredients.

Chef Robotics has kept its sales figures confidential but mentions that it has robots operating at food companies in five cities across the U.S. and Canada, including Fortune 500 food companies. It also claims to have quadrupled its recurring revenue from 2022 to 2023.