- Miso Robotics first debuted Flippy, a burger flipping kitchen robot about four years ago.
- The California startup recently closed a $35 million Series D raise through crowdfunding.
- After a year-long test, White Castle announced plans to expand Flippy to 100 restaurants.
Miso Robotics made headlines about four years ago when it debuted a burger-flipping robot, Flippy, at a fast-food restaurant in Southern California. Flippy was billed as the world's first autonomous robotic kitchen assistant — one that would work alongside, not replace, restaurant workers.
Flippy became an instant celebrity, often drawing large crowds at CaliBurger in Pasadena, California, the fast-food chain piloting the robot.
"We did have people come into the shop every single day to come see the robot. There was a little bit of a cult following," Buck Jordan, president and cofounder of Miso Robotics, told Insider.
A few months later Flippy, whose kitchen skills were expanding, landed a new gig as a fry cook at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
At the time, fast-food operators told the startup that Flippy might help them solve multiple challenges: rising minimum wage, the delivery boom, high operational costs, and labor shortages.
Yet, it was hard to get any serious takers for Flippy.
But as the pandemic turned into a months-long crisis, Jordan said interest in Flippy skyrocketed.
"Automation interest exploded with the pandemic," Jordan said.
After testing Flippy for more than a year, fast food chain White Castle announced plans on February 15 to expand the robot to 100 standalone locations.
"Our partnership with Miso continues to lead the way on what's next for back of house restaurant operations looking to empower team members with technology to better satisfy customers," Jeff Carper, chief operating officer at White Castle, said in a statement.
Investors are also taking notice in Miso Robotics, and not just those on Wall Street.
The scrappy startup from California closed its Series D round on November 18. Miso Robotics, whose key investor is Cali Group, raised $35 million through crowdfunding. Allowing individual investors a stake in the company through crowdfunding has been a key strategy for the startup.
Of the more than $70 million raised by Miso Robotics, nearly $60 million has been raised through crowdfunding, the company told Insider.
In 2020, Miso Robotics raised $17 million through the crowdfunding site, SeedInvest. At the time, it was the highest-grossing technology deal ever featured on the SeedInvest platform, Jordan said.
"It's a major milestone," he said. "We had the highest single-day raise ever and we actually crashed the site on our last day."
Jordan said the crowdfunding effort is allowing "ordinary people" to get a shot at benefiting from his company with a minimum buy of about $1,000.
"Venture capital is the most elite sport or investment class in the world," he said. "Tech has never been more popular in the world than it is today. So, why can't ordinary Americans have access to the same highest performing asset class that all the one-percenters have?"
One key problem Flippy can resolve in a health crisis is keeping employees socially distanced inside cramped kitchens.
"These tiny commercial kitchens are designed for elbow to elbow cooking," Jordan said. "Robots are the only solution that can address that."
Robots in the workforce have been a controversial subject. Unions say these autonomous kitchen assistants take jobs away from blue-collar workers. But the reality is, the fast-food industry has struggled for years to fill jobs.
By 2026, the Labor Department estimates that the industry will have 262,000 openings for restaurant cooks, alone.
The industry also faces the possibility of a federal minimum wage hike to $15 an hour as part of a proposed $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package that congressional Democrats are hoping to pass.
Miso Robotics tells investors that Flippy can tackle kitchen work that "many workers don't want to do."
Jordan said the AI-powered robot allows operators to redeploy staff for other roles created during the pandemic such as expediting curbside pickup and delivery orders.
Understanding the changing needs of the fast-food industry is something White Castle prides itself on.
Flippy began working full time at a restaurant in the midwest in late 2020.
White Castle said Flippy is not being used to replace jobs. The robot, instead, tackles repetitive and demanding frying duties.
Flippy, who doesn't call in sick or take breaks, is frying about 10 items including french fries, cheese sticks, chicken wings, onion rings, and breaded fish and chicken used on White Castle sandwiches. The robot frees up workers to tend to more hospitality-oriented tasks like helping fulfill off-premise orders, a segment that is likely to remain in growth mode in a post-vaccinated world.
White Castle and Buffalo Wilds Wings test new versions of Flippy
After a Flippy upgrade in November 2021, White Castle said it saw an immediate positive impact on daily operations and the productivity of its team members.
Flippy 2 can take on more than twice as many food preparation and fry grilling tasks compared to the previous version. Its new sleek design also takes up less space in the kitchen.
That sealed the deal for the 100-store expansion.
Jordan said White Castle's pilot got the ball rolling with investors.
"It's a big reason we saw investment dollars pouring in last year," said Jordan, who also serves as CEO of Wavemaker Labs, a venture studio for early-stage startups that focus on disruptive "seed to fork" technologies.
Jordan said Miso Robotics is using the capital to hire "incredible talent" as the startup continuously modifies Flippy to ensure it can be scaled for use in large national fast-food chains.
Buffalo Wild Wings, whose parent company is Inspire Brands, began testing Miso Robotics' new Flippy Wings robot in October. The robot specializes in frying fresh, frozen or hand-breaded products like chicken wings. The chain is testing the robot at the Inspire Brands Innovation Center.