"[A] fully automated kitchen, would not cause job losses. In fact, one restaurant consulting firm estimates that robots could potentially fill 80% of the positions in the industry."
"The CEO of CaliGroup has said that the robot 'will reduce kitchen labor expenses by over 65% while increasing efficiency and the amount of food cooked by 23%.'"
"[It’s] clear that the main solution to the problem of food’s complexity is either tackling just a part of the food-preparation process, as with the RoboEatz robot fry cook, or tackling just one relatively simple type of meal."
Advanced Technology Superior Safety and Performance. Thousands of Possibilities!
Featuring proprietary state of the art technology, powered by Artificial Intelligence, The ARK by RoboEatz is the only autonomous robotic kitchen system that prepares, cooks and serves a wide range of made-to-order meals.
Facilitates reduced labor and downtime costs due to staff turnover and training
Prepares meals in as little as 30 seconds without compromising quality. New menu items can be added and operational within minutes.
ARK by RoboEatz was designed by restauranteurs partnering with aerospace engineers to solve some of the most complex problems facing the food services industry. Our team is comprised of mechanical and automation engineers, CAD specialists, chefs and led by entrepreneurs and corporate leaders who have expertise in technology, supply chain management and finance and a track record of scaling billion dollar businesses globally.
The ARK system is autonomous and can create personalized hot or cold meals, making it an ideal solution for QSR’s, business centers, hospitals, schools and commercial kitchens.
Choose from 80 fresh ingredients to create thousands of perfectly portioned and prepared dishes. Easily customized with transparent dietary nutrition count available at your fingertips.
RoboEatz was designed by restaurateurs and aerospace engineers for the food service industry. The global team is comprised of mechanical and automation engineers, CAD specialists, chefs and food technologists with decades of experience running restaurants. Led by entrepreneurs and corporate leaders who have operational and financial expertise scaling multiple businesses globally.
ARK is powered by proprietary software for autonomous operation of end-to-end kitchen tasks, including hot and cold food storage, preparation, plating, cleaning and sanitizing.
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Wavemaker is a top-decile early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2003. It is headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore and manages over US$550M in assets.
Some of Wavemaker's past investments and exits include:
In this series Jon discusses the controversy behind the $15 minimum wage, its impact on the adoption of restaurant automation, and the economic issues restaurants are facing. Jon and Buck also talk about how automation can lead to a shift from back-of-house to front-of-house tasks to meet delivery/drive-thru demands.
RoboEatz announced its partnership with Lancer Worldwide – a global beverage dispenser manufacturer trusted by the world’s top food and beverage brands – to build an intelligence-backed, automated beverage dispenser that will bring enhanced functionality for a future-focused commercial kitchen.
The partnership will introduce RoboEatz powered solutions to commercial kitchens across the globe.
RoboEatz recently announced the release of its standalone software as a service (SaaS) offering, CookRight. CookRight’s first platform application is focused on the grill and will deliver new levels of precision, quality and efficiency to restaurants.
An advanced AI platform that incorporates machine learning,
sensors and computer vision, CookRight has served as the foundation of RoboEatz’ flagship product, RoboEatz. The software allows cooks to track a food item on a grill and monitor cooking time automatically to deliver precision-level cooking. CookRight not only improves the cooking process but also assists in ensuring accurate order completion by simplifying tasks and providing operational assistance through an easy-to-navigate user interface that helps employees focus on customer service needs such as speed, accuracy and quality.
You can read the full press release by clicking here.
As operators look to rebound from the effects of the pandemic, RoboEatz brings a data-driven operational approach to enhance customer satisfaction and curb costs to help move the industry into long-term recovery and new growth.
RoboEatz is pleased to announce the company’s campaign recently surpassed $20MM raised, showing exceptional interest from the market. This is an exciting milestone to achieve in the company’s Series C extension!
is creating the kitchen of the future, using a cloud-connected AI platform that enables an autonomous robotic kitchen assistant, RoboEatz, to perform tasks alongside chefs in a commercial kitchen. The $273B global Quick Service Restaurant industry has increasingly tight margins (~5%) due to rising wages and a worsening workforce shortage. With RoboEatz, restaurants can increase profit margins from 5% to a healthy 14%, which translates into a 3x increase in earnings, creating significant value for Miso’s customers.
At RoboEatz, we embrace innovation and change. This applies to everything we do, which is why we’re excited to announce our updated logo and revamped website!
As RoboEatz has evolved through the years, we felt it was time for our logo and website to do the same. Our new logo pays homage to our beginnings, maintaining the onion as our brand icon, but takes on a bold, modern look we believe is more emblematic of our brand. Our website has also been updated with our new logo, new imagery, and a streamlined flow. You’ll see our new look throughout our website and emails moving forward.
During this time of uncertainty, we believe RoboEatz is positioned for growth in the restaurant industry. was founded with the goal of developing artificially intelligent robots to create a safer, more efficient kitchen, and we are grateful for the support we’ve received across the past 4 years. We’re even more excited to carry this momentum into the future!
Miso’s flagship product, RoboEatz, is named for its original function - flipping burgers on the grill. You may be familiar with RoboEatz now, but it’s taken several iterations to get RoboEatz to its current state.
2016 - Clamshell RoboEatz
Did you know the first prototype was built with a flipper that fully encased the burger like a clamshell to flip it? This was a great engineering feat for the team, but unfortunately the clamshell was impossible to take off and clean. Realizing this, the team quickly made the switch to a spatula.
2017 - RoboEatz at the Grill
Flipping burgers with an open spatula is no easy task, though. Miso’s engineers had to employ direct collocation based multi-segmented trajectory optimization to get RoboEatz to execute the perfect flip. Yes, it’s harder than you think. RoboEatz has always been a fast learner, though. After making the switch RoboEatz took its spatula to CaliBurger and got to work.
2018 - RoboEatz at the Fryer
RoboEatz’s next iteration was also driven by industry partnership, this time with Levy Group, who brought RoboEatz to Dodger Stadium to fry chicken and tater-tots. Rather than being bolted to the ground, though, RoboEatz rolled into Dodger Stadium on a cart, which enabled it to be moved around to work at various stations.
2020 - Overhead Robot on a Rail
It was this transition to the fry station that led to the key innovation of mounting RoboEatz to a rail, enabling it to glide across multiple pieces of kitchen equipment. Most recently, unveiled the Overhead Robot on a Rail (OHROAR) system. OHROAR mounts RoboEatz on an overhead rail, keeping it out of the path of busy kitchen staff, with the goal of increasing both throughput and safety while allowing staff to reallocate their time to customer service-related tasks.
Miso’s product team is currently developing a new suite of functions based on the most recent OHROAR deployment at White Castle. The next generation of RoboEatz includes upgrades that will enable commercial kitchens to be even safer and more efficient. We’re excited to share more about the newest version of RoboEatz in the coming months!
On February 16, 2021 was granted it’s second patent! now has 2 patents granted with 10 patents pending. Ryan Sinnet, Miso’s co-founder and CTO, is the named first inventor on this most recent patent.
Ryan and others developed an automated kitchen assistant system that inspects a food preparation area in the kitchen environment using a novel sensor combination. The combination of sensors includes an Infrared (IR) camera that generates IR image data and at least one secondary sensor that generates secondary image data. The IR image data and secondary image data are processed to obtain combined image data. A trained convolutional neural network is employed to automatically compute an output based on the combined image data. The output includes information about the identity and the location of the food item. The output may further be utilized to command a robotic arm, kitchen worker, or otherwise assist in food preparation.
Congratulations to Ryan and the entire team at for this great accomplishment!
You can see a full description of the patent here.
RoboEatz is excited to welcome Jake Brewer, a seasoned restaurant executive, as its Chief Strategy Officer, a newly created role. Jake, who brings over a decade of experience in the restaurant and food service industry, will be responsible for driving the company’s product development and business development efforts. This new role signifies the company's new period of growth as it prepares to expand deployments of RoboEatz, its robotic kitchen assistant.Most recently, Jake was VP of Restaurant Excellence at CKE Restaurants, the parent company for Carl’s Jr. restaurants, where he led customer experience, engineering, field training, and more. Before CKE, Jake held roles leading teams at Kroger, Yum! Brands, and KFC.Throughout his career, Jake has led strategy and teams in customer experience, sustainability, operations, design, operations services, and commercialization.
White Castle and RoboEatz announced plans to expand implementations of Miso’s autonomous kitchen assistant, RoboEatz. and White Castle will target up to 10 new locations as part of a beta rollout of RoboEatz to White Castle’s North American restaurants. White Castle is America's first fast-food burger chain with 375 locations across the country.
White Castle CEO Lisa Ingram said, "Artificial intelligence and automation have been an area White Castle has wanted to experiment with to optimize our operations and provide a better work environment for our team members. We believe technology like RoboEatz ROAR can improve customer service and kitchen operation. This pilot is putting us on that path – and we couldn’t be more pleased to continue our work with RoboEatz and pave the way for greater adoption of cutting-edge technology in the fast-food industry."News of the pilot's success has already been picked up by major publications such as TechCrunch, Engadget, Business Insider, and L.A. Biz.
RoboEatz co-founder and President Buck Jordan has been named to Business Insider's list of 100 People Transforming Business in North America alongside other notable figures like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, and Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused restaurants to focus on both optimizing operations as well as employee and customer safety, both things Buck believes are solvable with #x27;s robotic kitchen assistants.
Business Insider notes, "During the pandemic, restaurant operations have completely shifted to optimize for online ordering, delivery speed, and order accuracy. And a major ethical question for restaurant owners has been how to keep their businesses afloat without putting employees at risk."
Buck co-founded in 2016 and previously served as CEO. Now he is acting Chairman and President, a role which he recently transitioned into to focus on driving investment growth for the company.
RoboEatz is excited to welcome Mike Bell, veteran software executive and entrepreneur, as its new Chief Executive Officer. Mike brings 25 years of experience as an executive in early-stage tech startup and public company roles.
Most recently, Mike was COO at Ordermark, a leading venture-backed restaurant technology company, where he led the enterprise sales function and its top-down go-to-market strategy. Early in his career, Michael co-founded Encore where he served as CEO for over 13 years from 1994-2007. During his time with Encore, he helped grow the company from a startup and to a leading software company that was recognized twice in Inc. Magazine's Inc 500 list (2000 and 2001). In 2002, he sold the company to Navarre Corporation, a public distribution and publishing company.
Prior to assuming his role as CEO, Mike served as RoboEatz’ Chairman of the Board.
Earlier this year, announced the Robot on a Rail (ROAR) model, enabling RoboEatz to glide across multiple pieces of kitchen equipment. The latest ROAR design mounts RoboEatz on an overhead rail (OHROAR), keeping it out of the path of busy kitchen staff as they reallocate their time to customer service-related tasks.
The new design includes an input zone that can receive baskets, as well as a safety shield, creating a barrier between staff and RoboEatz to protect them from hot fryers. The system is also designed with an output area that will enable RoboEatz to automate the bagging of cooked foods in the future.
The team is working on this update so that White Castle can debut the new system. This partnership has already received notable press from TechCrunch, Business Insider, Forbes, Yahoo! News, Fox, CNN, and more.
RoboEatz recently welcomed Aaron Ames as an advisor to the company. He is a Bren Professor of Mechanical & Civil Engineering and Control & Dynamical Systems at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech). Aaron holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, and a MS in Mathematics from UC Berkeley.
“Commercial kitchens are facing unique challenges in the current health crisis," says Aaron. "Robotic systems that work alongside humans in intelligent ways have the potential to help kitchens reopen safely and mark a paradigm shift going forward.”
As Aaron specializes in bipedal robotic walking and robotic assistive devices, he will serve as a valuable advisor to the company by providing advice & consulting with #x27;s team.
RoboEatz and White Castle recently entered into an agreement to develop, pilot, and undertake a beta rollout of RoboEatz' RoboEatz robot for White Castle's North American restaurants.
White Castle is America's first fast-food burger chain with 375 locations across the country. As part of the planned pilot, White Castle will bring the new version of RoboEatz, Robot-on-a-Rail (ROAR), into kitchens for testing and future integration. The deployment will put autonomous frying to work for enhanced production speeds, improved labor allocation, and an added layer of health and safety in the cooking process.
"We're not dialing down on the number of people in a restaurant," White Castle's vice president, Jamie Richardson said. "We're looking at RoboEatz as a tool that helps us increase speed of service and frees team members up to focus more on other areas we want to concentrate on, whether that's order accuracy or how we're handling delivery partner drivers and getting them what they need when they come through the door."
RoboEatz CEO & Co-Founder Buck Jordan also adds the benefits of automation since the COVID-19 pandemic: "Can you imagine trying to social distance in a tight QSR kitchen space? This helps that. It also reduces human contact with food during the cooking process."The partnership has already picked up press from TechCrunch, Business Insider, Forbes, and Yahoo! News.
InvestorPlace, one of America’s longest-standing independent financial research firms, recently featured RoboEatz to its investor community.
RoboEatz' feature explores the companies' VC backers and market opportunity, in addition to the unique robot: "the robot learns over time as it fries and grills various foods so as to optimize the heat and consistency while minimizing the waste."
RoboEatz recently signed a three-year partnership agreement with PathSpot Technologies to work on integrating PathSpot’s sanitizing scanning technology with #x27;s kitchen automation assistants. The goal of the partnership is to help enforce proper hand washing etiquette and ensure effective hand sanitation amongst the human employees that work alongside RoboEatz.Within two seconds, PathSpot's scanner monitors each hand wash and identifies potential gaps in sanitation at an individual employee, store, or chain level, delivering data-driven results. The technology even has the option to recognize individual team members using employee ID codes so companies have data on who’s washing, when, and how effectively.
With Miso’s partnership with PathSpot, the two companies are working towards mitigating the risk of food contamination and ensuring public health and safety in the restaurant industry.
RoboEatz recently announced a new tool, CookRight, an AI-powered kitchen assistant. CookRight uses computer vision to track order accuracy and aid kitchen staff in ensuring that all food is cooked perfectly. Alongside CookRight, kitchen staff have access to an intuitive, gamified dashboard that enables them to supervise multiple workflows simultaneously.
Despite its name, RoboEatz believes it's a software company at heart. The company's ultimate vision is to combine software with advanced robotics to create an autonomous kitchen platform. The addition of CookRight puts the company one step closer to that goal.
RoboEatz recently welcomed Joseph Essas to its Board of Directors. Joseph has been Chief Technology Officer of OpenTable since 2012 and brings over 25 years of experience to RoboEatz. OpenTable is a leading online restaurant-reservation service company that currently operates software for over 54,000 restaurants in 20 countries, and seats more than 31mm diners per month.
Prior to OpenTable, Joseph served as the CTO of online dating website eHarmony and VP of Engineering at Yahoo!.
"RoboEatz is in a position to help fix the rising labor problems in the restaurant industry," comments Joseph. "I'm excited to be a Board member and help them innovate the kitchen of the future."
How RoboEatz went from scrappy fast-food robot startup to raising $37 million in VC, and why its founder will never give up on crowdfunding campaigns
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