Robert Bosch joined existing investor NIS Ventures in funding Zimplistic, the developer of an automatic roti making machine.
Singapore-based intelligent kitchen product maker Zimplistic has closed an $11.5m series B round featuring Robert Bosch Venture Capital (RBVC), industrial conglomerate Robert Bosch’s strategic investment arm.
NSI Ventures, the venture capital subsidiary of private equity firm Northstar, also participated in the round. Jan Westerhues, an investment partner at RBVC, and Hian Goh, general partner at NSI, will join Zimplistic’s board in conjunction with the funding.
Zimplistic is the creator of a fully automatic roti maker called Rotimatic. The device measures the correct mixture of water and flour to produce one roti – a flatbread that is a dietary staple in many parts of the world – per minute.
The company, which claims to have a waiting list for the product sized at $72m, plans to complete ongoing beta testing before increasing production.
Westerhues said: “Rotimatic’s cutting edge robotic technology takes user convenience in the kitchen around a conscious, healthy nutrition to new levels. We are very impressed by the Zimplistic team and happy to support the company [as it prepares] to scale up production and enter global distribution.”
Zimplistic previously raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from DGG Group, VIR Private Investors, Spring Singapore, entrepreneur Deepak Gurnani and NUS Enterprise, a subsidiary of National University of Singapore. NSI reportedly invested more than $1m in the company in February 2014.
