UTokyo Innovation Platform has contributed to a series A round for Connected Robotics, which develops cooking robots for restaurants.
Connected Robotics, a Japan-based developer of robots for the hospitality sector, raised ¥850m ($7.9m) in series A funding on Wednesday featuring UTokyo Innovation Platform, the venture fund of University of Tokyo.
Global Brain led the round, which also featured property developer Mitsui Fudosan and consumer electronics group Sony’s corporate venturing arm Sony Innovation Fund as well as Coral Capital, the venture capital firm that emerged out of 500 Startups Japan.
Founded in 2014, Connected Robotics designs and manufactures robots for restaurants. Its offering includes OctoChef (pictured above), which is capable of cooking food autonomously, and Reita, which dispenses soft-serve ice cream.
The company is also working on a dishwashing robot, a robot to prepare hot snacks in convenience stores and a robot that can cook breakfast, called Loraine. It will use the funding towards the continued development of these three robots, recruitment and marketing.
Connected Robotics was founded by Tetsuya Sawato, who studied robotics at University of Tokyo before moving onto Kyoto University Graduate School. He initially launched a restaurant before identifying a range of problems and founding Connected Robotics.
The company previously raised ¥100m in seed funding across two rounds in 2018 from investors including 500 Startups Japan, Draper Nexus, Astart and assorted angel investors.
– Feature image courtesy of Connected Robotics
