💵 Robo-Burgers n' Beer 💵

RoboBurger Robo-Raises Robo $10M

RoboBurger, the startup behind the eponymous hamburger-cooking vending machine, announced last week that it has raised a $10M Seed 2 round of funding in partnership with London-based private equity firm Promethean Investments.

The RoboBurger is pretty much what you’d expect — a burger joint in a box. As I wrote previously:

Customers place their order via touchscreen (not sure if there is a mobile option yet). RoboBurger then cooks the patty fresh, toasts the bun and can add ketchup, mustard and/or melted cheese before boxing it up and dispensing the finished burger in one of two delivery bays. RoboBurger is NSF Certified and according to the video above, the whole process takes under six minutes.

The fact that RoboBurger cooks a raw hamburger patty makes them different from just about every other food robot vending machine out there. Most food robot vending machines hold ingredients that are already pre-or par-cooked. It’s not hard to understand why. Handling raw meat requires additional layers of cleaning, sanitation and separation to prevent cross-contamination.

Plus, you need to really make sure you’re cooking to the proper temperature. Undercooked/raw pizza from a vending machine is one thing. An undercooked burger can mean 🤢🤮.

But RoboBurger appears to have cracked those particular codes. The company opened its first vending machine location in March of this year at a New Jersey (where the company is headquartered) mall. The company says it will use its new money to scale up production of the Mark 2 version of its robot.

I’m still a big believer in the food vending machine space. The systems are making increasingly complex meals, and their small footprints mean that you can basically build a food court in a hotel lobby or airport alcove.

Speaking of vending machine fundraising… and, not for nothin’, things that go well with burgers.

EBar Crowdfunded £844,000 for Perfectly Poured Pints

Across the pond, the Aberdeen, UK-based EBar announced this week that it has raised £844,000 (~$968,000 USD) via an equity crowdfunding campaign. The company says it has raised more than £2 million in equity financing since its inception.

EBar makes beer vending machines that can pour out a perfect pint in 30 seconds. These machines are then beers-as-a-service. They are installed at venues for sports matches, concerts, etc. and once the event is done, the EBars are packed up and shipped to the next event. EBar doesn’t charge anything up-front and instead takes a percentage of sales.

I don’t even like beer and I think this is a great idea.

The machines are workhorses, pumping out 300 beers per hour. There doesn’t need to be any artistry here. Just crank out pints quickly so people can get their beers and back to their seats without standing in line and missing all the action.

According to the press announcement, over the past six months, EBars have been deployed to more than 40 sports and entertainment venues, sold more than 170,000 pints and “achieved over £1M in platform sales.”

That’s a lot of pints (hope venues have directed budgets to build bigger bathrooms).

---