Tech

Jasper’s robot assembles fresh meals for nearby apartment dwellers • TechCrunch


After trying to sell its technology to large food service companies, the startup automates cooking Jasper has moved directly to the consumer. In a recent conversation, CEO Gunnar Froh told TechCrunch about the pivot and general update about the company, a member of this year’s Battlefield 200 at Disrupt 2022.

When Gunnar founded Jasper a few years ago (as YPC Technologies) with human-robot interaction expert Camilo Perez Quintero, their motivation was primarily to save cooking time.. After developing robotic technology to automate the cooking process, they opted for a business-to-business market approach, hoping to sell their platform to caterers and vendors. service. But the company has never quite achieved the corporate traction of Gunnar and Quintero hopes it will.

The company pivoted a few months ago, rebranding itself as Jasper and adopting what Gunnar calls a “cook as a service” model. Jasper currently runs robotic kitchens in or next to residential high-rises, charging residents a subscription fee plus the cost of ingredients for meals.

“Having delicious meals at home is expensive or time consuming. Food delivery is very inefficient – restaurants or ghost kitchens prepare a few dollars’ worth of meals and then pay someone to ship them across town. While most customers are not aware of this, about half of their dollars are spent on platform costs and delivery costs,” Gunnar told TechCrunch. “By operating robotic kitchens in or next to residential high-rises, Jasper eliminates labor and delivery inefficiencies to bring residents freshly prepared delicious meals with home cooking costs. Jasper meals are plated on porcelain, allowing the company’s customers to cut down on their household waste by up to a third.”

Jasper

Jasper’s robotic technology platform, assembles food according to set menus. Image credits: Jasper

Food automation startups are struggling, as recently demonstrated by Chipotle’s investment in Miso Robotics’ tortilla chip making robot. Unsurprisingly – labor shortages and increasingly expensive ingredients make food-processing robots an attractive proposition. In 2020, Karakuri landed $8.4 million for an automated canteen to serve meals. Last month, Robotics Chef raised $7.7 million with the goal of helping automate some aspects of food preparation. A few months later, the Sweetgreen salad chain bought Kitchen robot startup Spyce, and this past summer Makeline raised $24 million for a robot that automatically assembles lunch bowls.

Jasper competes more directly with Los Angeles-based Nommi, which offers cafeterias to real estate and college campus partners. But Gunnar insists that Jasper’s platform can prepare a wider variety of menu items (priced from $1.20 to $16.90), including cod with steamed potatoes, paprika cream chicken and desserts. mouth like toffee.

“We use machine learning to schedule jobs and deliver materials. We plan to also add it to give the experience of a personal chef,” said Gunnar sadly. “Similar to how Spotify can predict what kind of music you like, Jasper will predict what meals our customers want to eat… No other food manufacturing company we know of can currently serve that food. Serving customers at home the Jasper way, no other system can prepare a menu as versatile as ours. “

Jasper said it has run multiple tests at one residential condominium over the past year and in the past month has launched Jasper at six apartment buildings. To date, only about 231 customers have ordered food from Jasper through the company’s ordering platform. But in a sign that investors are satisfied with the current progress, Jasper has raised $3.5 million from backers, including Toyota Ventures.

Jasper

Image credits: Jasper

In an emailed statement, Toyota Ventures Founding CEO Jim Adler said: “Toyota Ventures made an early investment in Jasper because we are excited by the team’s vision of delivering fresh, authentic food. attractive menu and high quality food close to consumers. They have focused on how to best serve customers daily meals at home. They gained impressive initial traction due to recent labor shortages in the restaurant industry and growing consumer demand for affordable food options. It’s a perfect storm for Jasper, it is creating a huge opportunity for the company to improve the way we eat and drink every day. “

Gunnar said the goal is to hit $2.5 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) as it prepares to raise another $7 million in capital. Jasper, which employs 13 people (a number that Gunnar predicts will grow to 15 by the end of the year), has a current ARR of “under” $100,000.

“We just launched Jasper in multiple buildings over the past few weeks and are going to increase sales,” Gunnar said. “This funding will further automate our processes to achieve $167 in revenue per hour.”

news7h

News7h: Update the world's latest breaking news online of the day, breaking news, politics, society today, international mainstream news .Updated news 24/7: Entertainment, Sports...at the World everyday world. Hot news, images, video clips that are updated quickly and reliably

Related Articles

Back to top button