Robo Boba!

Plus: Flytrex extends delivery treks, and Tortoise jerky.

Happy Friday, Everyone! I hope your week was excellent.

We’ve got a fun little newsletter for you today with stories about:

• Bobacino signing a deal with Boba Guys

• Tortoise at Walmart

• Flytrex widening its radius

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Boba Fête

To be fair, I’m not using the word “fête” precisely correct in that sub-head there, but presumably Bobacino and Boba Guys are celebrating, so it stays.

Bobacino, the robotic boba tea kiosk company and the Boba Guys chain of Boba cafes yesterday announced an agreement “to accelerate the development of Bobacino's technology and explore future collaboration opportunities.”

The deal itself isn’t big. Boba Guys will become strategic advisors to Bobacino “with the goal of shaping the future of the boba industry,” and though it isn’t spelled out, I assume the chain will look to extend its footprint through the deployment of co-branded Bobacino machines.

But while relatively small, I wanted to write about it for a few reasons:

1. I f*@%ing love boba tea. Hands down top five drink choice for me.

2. It gives me an excuse to re-post this interview I did last year with Bobacino’s Chief Boba Officer that explored issues around race, appropriation and automation (it’s pretty good, if I do say so myself):

So a White Tech Guy Wants to Make a Boba Tea Robot... (Full Version for Paid Subscribers)

But Bobacino is also worth watching given how specific its product is. There are plenty of coffee-making robots, bot not many bubble tea ‘bots. Bobacino says the boba tea market is supposed to reach $4.3 billion by 2028 (no doubt driven in large part by my many visits to Volcano Tea). How big a role will automation play in getting the industry to that number?