Aniai, a business that invented Alpha Grill, a burger-grilling robot, raised $12 million today, increasing its total to $15 million. Factory One, its first production plant in South Korea, will get the funds. The company will also use Alpha Cloud, a cloud-based AI software platform, for the robot.
Robots are popular in restaurants because they may help with labor shortages and rising wages. A research analysis found that restaurants might replace over 80% of restaurant roles with robots, saving 30% to 70% of labor expenditures.
Burger restaurants use six to eight kitchen people every shift to cook burgers, said Aniai CEO Gunpil Hwang. “Alpha Grill lets restaurants grill burgers with one employee.”
To fulfill Alpha Grill demand, the New York business will open Factory One this year with 500 pre-orders for delivery in the first quarter of 2024. Its factory will generate over 1,000 robots annually. In 2022, the business released the double-sided Alpha Grill, which can cook 200 patties per hour or eight patties at once.
Alpha Grill will use cloud-based AI software and a real-time vision sensor to detect patties’ color, temperature, form, and quality. Alpha Grill swiftly tells the cooking team if the user’s patty does not satisfy its cooking recipes, standards, and criteria to ensure quality control.
Hwang told Eltrys the business is creating Alpha Kitchen, its second product. Alpha Kitchen plans to automate the whole burger-making process by 2025, from frying patties and toasting buns to distributing veggies and other toppings.
We service seven customers, including South Korean fast-food burger businesses CJ Freshway, BAS Burger, and DownTowner. Alpha Grill has been testing with U.S. burger businesses since last year. The company plans to accelerate its U.S. and South Korean expansions with the new financing.
Kitchen automation is expanding, including Aniai. Other firms in this field include Miso Robotics, which makes Flippy, a burger-flipping robot; Botinkit, a Chinese food robot company; and Chef Robotics, in San Francisco.
New investors SV Investment, the UK’s Ignite Innovation, and Capstone Partners joined InterVest in the current round.
Founded in 2020, the firm had 30 workers in December 2023.
