Robot chef start-up picks up £6.5m from Ocado and Brent Hoberman’s VC fund

A British technology start-up building robotic chefs has raised £6.5m in new funding from backers including Ocado and Brent Hoberman’s venture capital fund.

Karakuri has developed a robot that can prepare meals for customers and is in talks with restaurants and food shops around the world to install the devices from 2022.

The fresh funding for the start-up comes from existing backers including Brent Hoberman’s venture capital business firstminute Capital, as well as Deliveroo backer Hoxton Ventures and Ocado.

Karakuri also received funding from the Government’s Future Fund start-up bailout package which has been issuing convertible loans of up to £5m to small businesses in the UK during the coronavirus pandemic.

The funding follows a £7m investment round into the business which Ocado led last year.

Chief executive Barney Wragg, a former music industry executive who previously ran Andrew Lloyd Webber’s entertainment business, said the pandemic had paused Karakuri’s plans to install initial versions of the robots but prompted many new businesses to consider using the technology.

“Covid was a double-edged sword for us,” he said, “we’ve had a huge increase of inquiries and orders.”

Karakuri has developed an initial version of its robot which can be used in staff canteens to produce customisable meals using ingredients like granola, yoghurt and berries.

Mr Wragg said the business is in talks with fast food restaurants, large organisations and food retailers. “Throughout next year we’ll do a series of customer trials and then we have production machines going into the hands of customers in 2022,” he said.

Despite its ongoing investment into developing robotics, Karakuri’s aim isn’t to replace any employees with its robots, Mr Wragg said. Instead, he says his clients want to retain staff by using robots to remove parts of their job.

“Even the big groups that we talk to, their challenge is not getting rid of people, their challenge is retaining people. Their recruitment and retraining costs are phenomenal,” he said.