The creation of a salad making robot is very good, as far as technology companies are concerned, but Chowbotics is looking to expand. Bay Area has raised $ 11 million in an "A-1 series" led by the Foundry Group and Techstars.
The big deal for money largely consists of expanding the company's food selection beyond leafy vegetables, where Sally the Salad Robot has made its change. At the top of the list are bowls of grain, lunch bowls, bowls of poke, acai bowls and bowls of yogurt. If that's food served in a bowl, Chowbotics seems interested.
Seems simple enough, really. After all, at the base, Sally is a kind of vending machine, putting different ingredients in the same bowl. Apparently, it's a little more complicated than that, especially when you start mixing things like yogurts and berry purees. "The main challenges lie in finding special technical solutions to distribute different shapes and sizes of ingredients," said Deepak Sekar, founder and CEO of TechCrunch.
The company also uses funding to add a whole bunch of senior roles. According to the press release:
Warren Manzer, who was President of Foodservice at Clipper and Senior Vice President of Crown Brands, joined Chowbotics as Vice President of Food Service Sales. Rory Bevins, senior vice president of La Bottega Americas and global vice president at Molton Brown, joined Chowbotics as vice president of the hospitality industry. Lee Greer, who was chief marketing officer at Jason's Deli, is joining Chowbotics as a vice president of his offsite kitchen business unit. Shelley Janes, who was responsible for partnerships at CarDash and CEO of SideDoor, joined Chowbotics as sales director, responsible for the Western US region. Nolan Schachter, who was Director of Sales and Marketing at TeaBot, joined Chowbotics as Sales Manager, Canada Head.
Funding follows a $ 5 million Series A in March of last year.