So Let's Get to the Point, Let's Roll Another (Robot) Joint Venture

Wavemaker Labs takes co-branding to the next level.

Co-branding is a smart strategy for emerging food robotics and automation startups. By partnering with a well-known food brand, food robotics companies can focus on technology and let the food brand focus on, well, the food.

Wavemaker Labs has upped the ante on co-branding relationships recently, and formed two different full-on joint ventures with restaurant partners in as many weeks:

• Last week Piestro (a Wavemaker portfolio company) announced a joint venture with the 800 Degrees pizza chain dubbed 800° GO. The new venture is an equal partnership that will deploy 3,600 - 800° GO pizza vending machines over the next five years.

• Today, Wavemaker and virtual restaurant brand platform C3 announced a new joint venture to create Nommi, a new startup that will make a fully autonomous restaurant kiosk of the same name. C3 has a non-binding pre-order of 1,000 Nommi units that will be co-branded with different virtual brands in C3’s portfolio.

Doing these joint ventures seems provide a few immediate benefits for each party involved.