TOKYO (Reuters) – SoftBank Group-backed food service robot startup Bear Robotics has raised $81 million in a Series B funding round with investors that include Cleveland Avenue, a venture capital firm founded by a former McDonalds chief executive.
Other investors include South Korean private equity firm IMM and telco KT Corp, the startup’s co-founder and chief operating officer Juan Higueros told Reuters, declining to disclose the firm’s latest valuation.
Bear Robotics has shipped more than 5,000 of its Servi food service robots, which carry food and drink between kitchen and tables on layers of trays, and partnered with industry players such as Denny’s, Chili’s and Pepsi.
The California-based startup aims to expand beyond its home market and Japan and South Korea, where it has partnered with SoftBank and KT respectively, into Europe and Southeast Asia amid industry labour shortages.
SoftBank led the startup’s Series A round and has shifted to reselling robots from third parties and formed a joint venture with household goods maker Iris Ohyama in Japan.
Bear Robotics charges a $999 monthly fee for Servi in the US, which gives the robot a running cost of around $2.75 per hour, Higueros said.
The startup plans to roll out two new robots this year, one that can detect air quality on the move and another that can carry deliveries from the lobby to upper floors of a building via the elevator.
Bear Robotics makes its products in South Korea, with the company relying on its head of manufacturing, who previously worked for Taiwan’s Foxconn, to help navigate the “tough to manage” supply chain pressures, Higueros said.
In related news, Japanese fashion magnate Yusaku Maezawa is buying robotics startup Groove X, which makes an “affectionate” companion robot, saying on Tuesday he was drawn by its ability to “make people feel happy”.
(By Sam Nussey; Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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