Jasper robots collect fresh food for nearby apartment dwellers • TechCrunch

After trying to sell its technology to large foodservice companies, cooking automation startup Jasper has turned to direct-to-consumer. In a recent interview, CEO Gunner Froh told TechCrunch about the pivot and provided an overview of the company at Disrupt 2022, which is a member of Battlefield 200 this year.

When Gunnar Jasper founded (as YPC Technologies) many years ago with human-robot interaction expert Camilo Perez Quintero, their motivation was primarily to save time on cooking.. After developing robotics technologies to automate cooking processes, they chose to go business-to-business with the intention of selling the platform to food vendors and service providers. But The company didn’t get the corporate traction that Gunnar and Quintero had hoped for.

The company moved to Jasper a few months ago and Gunnar adopted the “cooking as a service” model. Jasper now operates robotic kitchens on or near residential high-rises, charging residents a registration fee and a price for food items.

“Eating good food at home is too expensive or too time-consuming. Food delivery is not very efficient – restaurants or ghost kitchens prepare meals that cost a few dollars and pay someone to deliver them across town. Most customers don’t know this, about half of that dollar is spent on stage fees and delivery costs. Gunnar told TechCrunch. “By running robotic kitchens on or near residential high-rises, Jasper eliminates labor and delivery inefficiencies, providing residents with freshly prepared gourmet meals at the expense of home cooking. Jasper dishes are plated on porcelain, allowing customers to cut household waste by up to a third.” .

Food automation startups are having a moment, as evidenced by Chipotle’s recent investment in Miso Robotics’ tortilla chip-making robot. No wonder – labor shortages and increasingly expensive ingredients make cooking robots attractive. In the year In 2020, Karakuri landed $8.4 million for its automated dining space. Last May, Chef Robotics raised $7.7 million to help automate some aspects of cooking. A few months later, salad chain Sweetgreen bought kitchen robotics startup Spice, and last summer McLean secured $24 million for the robot, which automatically assembles bowl lunches.

Jasper competes directly with Los Angeles-based Nomi, which offers standalone food kiosks to real estate and college campus partners. Gunnar, however, insists that Jasper’s platform can accommodate a wide range of menu items (ranging from $1.20 to $16.90), including cod with steamed potatoes, paprika cream chicken and desserts like sticky toffee pudding.

“We use machine learning for task scheduling and grocery delivery. We also plan to add to enable a personal chef experience,” Gunnar laments. No way can serve customers at home, create a menu as versatile as ours, like no other system can.

Jasper said it has done a lot of testing in residential mid-rises over the past year, and last month Jasper launched in six apartment buildings. So far, only about 231 customers have ordered from Jasper Foods through the company’s ordering platform. But in a sign investors are happy with the current growth, Jasper has raised $3.5 million from backers including Toyota Ventures.

Image Credits: Jasper

In an emailed statement, Jim Adler, founding managing director of Toyota Ventures, said, “Toyota Ventures made an early investment in Jasper because we are excited by the team’s vision to bring innovative cooking, exciting menus and high quality food closer to consumers. Emphasis is placed on how best to provide customers with daily meals at home. They have an impressive early track record, fueled by recent labor shortages in the restaurant industry and growing consumer demand for affordable food options. It’s a bit of a perfect storm for Jasper, creating a huge opportunity for the company to improve the way we eat every day.

Gunnar says the goal is to reach $2.5 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) while preparing to raise $7 million in additional capital. Jasper, which employs 13 people (a number Gunnar estimates will grow to 15 by the end of the year), has a current ARR of “under” $100,000.

“Over the past few weeks, we’ve launched Jasper in several buildings and are growing revenue,” Gunnar said. “This funding adds automation to our process to earn $167 an hour.”