AI-enabled robotics systems for meal assembly creator Chef Robotics raises $43.1 million in new Series A funding. This includes $30.6 million in equity and $22.5 million in equipment financing debt. The equipment financing debt will be used to cover the financing of Chef’s robotic systems for Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) to help customers cut their front CapEx for their robots.
The equity round was led by Avataar Ventures and included investments from Construct Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Promus Ventures, MFV Partners, Interwoven Ventures, HCVC, MaC Venture Capital, Red and Blue Ventures, Tau Partners, Alumni Ventures, Siddhi Capital, and BOLD Capital Partners. The new funding brings Chef’s total capital raised to $65.6M which consists of $38.8M in equity and $26.75M in equipment financing, all with Silicon Valley Bank, a Division of First Citizens Bank.
The funding round will allow Chef to accelerate production deployments of its robotic systems, providing momentum for the real-world AI data engine flywheel that the company credits for its rapid growth rate of meals produced. Given food is highly variable, Chef requires high volumes of production data over prolonged periods of time for optimal model performance. The more data Chef collects in the field, the more its systems’ performance improves, the more customers use Chef’s robotic systems, the more customers expand; this expansion in turn creates more runtime in production leading to more data from the field; it also means that when Chef approaches new customers, Chef can help manipulate their ingredients from the get-go, further accelerating the flywheel’s momentum.
“Robotics is really having a moment right now. The innovations in AI have unlocked the potential of Embodied AI for robotics. We believe we’re in the pole position to scale given all the real-world production training data we already have,” says Rajat Bhageria, Founder and CEO of Chef Robotics.
“AI in the physical world is happening right now with robotics. Food is one of the largest markets in the world. Industrial AI is already winning, and food packaging automation is quietly transforming how we get our meals. Chef has quickly cemented its standing as the industry leader in AI-enabled robotics for meal assembly at over 44 million servings produced and counting. We look forward to this exciting partnership with Chef Robotics as they expand their global leadership,” said Mohan Kumar, Founder and Managing Partner of Avataar Ventures.
Additionally, this infusion of funds will enable Chef to scale its go-to-market team and efforts. The funding round equips Chef to further invest in non-engineering functions like sales and marketing to scale its deployments.
Chef currently serves customers in the U.S. and Canada, with plans to expand to the U.K. market in 2025.
