News on Medial

Chef Robotics raises $43.1 Mn led by Avataar Ventures

EntrackrEntrackr · 3m ago
Chef Robotics raises $43.1 Mn led by Avataar Ventures
Medial

Chef Robotics, creators of AI-enabled robotic systems for meal assembly, has raised $43.1 million in new Series A funding, including $20.6 million in equity and $22.5 million in equipment financing debt. The equity round was led by Avataar Ventures and included investments from Construct Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Promus Ventures, MFV Partners, Interwoven Ventures, HCVC, MaC Venture Capital, Red and Blue Ventures, Tau Partners, Alumni Ventures, Siddhi Capital, and BOLD Capital Partners. The funding round will allow Chef to accelerate production deployments of its robotic systems, providing momentum for the real-world AI data engine flywheel that the company credits for its rapid growth rate of meals produced. The debt will be used to finance Chef's robotic systems for Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS), ensuring that Chef's customers do not have to front CapEx for their robots. The new funding brings Chef's total capital raised to $65.6 million, which includes $26.75 million in equipment financing, all with Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. Chef claims to have produced over 44 million servings through robot deployments at brands such as Amy's Kitchen, Sunbasket, Chef Bombay, and Cafe Spice. The data collected from each meal assembled is used to train its AI models. "Robotics is really having a moment right now. The innovations in AI have unlocked the potential of Embodied AI for robotics. We believe we're in the pole position to scale, given all the real-world production training data we already have," says Rajat Bhageria, Founder and CEO of Chef Robotics.

Related News

Exclusive: Niqo Robotics raises $9 Mn in a new round

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Exclusive: Niqo Robotics raises $9 Mn in a new round
Medial

Agritech robotics firm Niqo Robotics (formerly TartanSense) has raised Rs 74.7 crore or $9 million in a new round led by Brida Innovation Ventures. The fresh funding comes after a hiatus of three years for the Bengaluru-based company. The board of Niqo Robotics has passed a special resolution to issue 8,577 preference shares at a price of Rs 87,090 each to raise Rs 74.7 crore, its regulatory filing accessed from the Registrar of Companies shows. Bidra Innovation Ventures pumped in Rs 41.5 crore while exiting investor Omnivore Partners also subscribed to the round with Rs 33.2 crore. As per startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, the company has been valued at around Rs 290 crore or $35 million (post-money) Following the fresh proceeds, Omnivore Partners emerged as the largest external stakeholder with 25.7% followed by Brida Innovation and Blume Ventures which commanded 18% and 10.7%, respectively. Its sole founder Jaisimha Rao holds more than a quarter of the company. See TheKredible for the complete shareholding pattern. Founded in 2015 by Jaisimha Rao, Niqo Robotics specializes in crafting compact agricultural robots empowered with AI-driven computer vision technology which claims to reduce costs and increase profitability. The company announced its rebranding to Niqo Robotics in March last year. Niqo Robotics has raised $16 million to date including its $5 million in Series A round from FMC, Omnivore, and Blume Ventures in August 2021. The firm also scored a $2 million Seed round in 2019. While the company would disclose its FY24 numbers later this year, the nine-year-old firm’s Indian entity largely remained in pre-revenue stage with a revenue of only Rs 1.3 crore during FY23. At the same time, its losses spiked twofolds to Rs 9.8 crore in the fiscal year ending March 2023.

Niqo Robotics raises $13 Mn in Series B round to scale globally

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Niqo Robotics raises $13 Mn in Series B round to scale globally
Medial

Agritech robotics firm Niqo Robotics (formerly TartanSense) on Tuesday announced that it has raised $13 million in a Series B round led by Brida Innovation Ventures. The round also saw significant investments from new investor Fulcrum Global Capital and existing investor Omnivore. This brings Niqo’s total fundraising to $21 million including a $5 million in Series A round from FMC, Omnivore, and Blume Ventures in August 2021 and a $2 million Seed round in 2019. Entrackr exclusively reported about the deal on May 1. Niqo will expand to new markets and accelerate the commercial adoption of spot spray, globally, according to Jaisimha Rao, founder and CEO of the company. Niqo Robotics specializes in crafting compact agricultural robots empowered with AI-driven computer vision technology which claims to reduce costs and increase profitability. It uses a proprietary AI camera with deep learning models to identify and selectively spray on target plants, reducing chemical usage by up to 90%. In 2023-24, Niqo claims to commercialize over 90,000 acres of land and benefiting over 1,800 farmers. While the company is yet to disclose audited FY24 numbers, the nine-year-old firm’s Indian entity largely remained in pre-revenue stage with a revenue of only Rs 1.3 crore during FY23. At the same time, its losses surged 2X to Rs 9.8 crore. As of the latest tranche, Omnivore Partners was the largest external stakeholder in Niqo with 25.7% followed by Brida Innovation and Blume Ventures which commanded 18% and 10.7%, respectively. Check TheKredible for more details. It competes with Zenrobotics, SwarmFarm, and Ecorobotis, among others.

LambdaTest raises $38 Mn to scale QA platform KaneAI

EntrackrEntrackr · 7m ago
LambdaTest raises $38 Mn to scale QA platform KaneAI
Medial

Cloud-based testing platform LambdaTest has secured $38 million in a funding round led by Avataar Ventures, with Qualcomm Ventures also participating. The fresh funding comes after a gap of more than 30 months for the Noida and San Francisco-based startup. This latest round brings the company’s total funding to $108 million, including a $45 million round in March 2022. Its early backers include Premji Invest, Peak XV, Telstra Ventures, Blume Ventures, and Leo Capital. LambdaTest was part of the fourth cohort of Peak XV’s accelerator program, Surge. LambdaTest plans to use the latest funds to enhance its AI-driven QA solutions, including its newly launched “AI Native QA Agent-as-a-Service” platform, KaneAI. Founded in 2017 by Asad Khan, the startup aims to revolutionize quality assurance (QA) through automation and AI. LambdaTest boasts a customer base of over 15,000 and claims to have executed more than 1.2 billion tests to date. KaneAI is designed to reduce manual testing efforts by up to 70% by automating test script generation and providing actionable insights. According to the company, its HyperExecute platform accelerates test resolution by 2.5x and detects errors 60% faster than traditional cloud grids. With 105% year-over-year growth, LambdaTest serves over 2.3 million developers and testers globally. In India, the firm’s operating revenue surged 53.6% to Rs 175.44 crore in FY24 from Rs 114.22 crore in the previous fiscal year. Its profit stood at around Rs 18 crore. However, the company did not disclose its global financial numbers. BrowserStack, Perfecto, and Testsigma are some of LambdaTest’s direct or indirect competitors.

Download the medial app to read full posts, comements and news.