Why SEA’s food bots are outshining Silicon Valley at the table

Food-making robots promised dining concepts straight out of science fiction, but the past few years have been a dumpster fire for many in the field as several firms shuttered part of their operations.

Yet, while their Silicon Valley contemporaries have struggled, Southeast Asia’s food robotics players have flourished – some even expect their revenue to double or triple in the coming years.

Food robotics darlings Zume Pizza and Café X have raised US$423 million and US$14.5 million, respectively. Though, many of their Southeast Asian peers compete with smaller war chests.

As robot chefs and baristas take off in Southeast Asia, here’s how they’re setting up for success.

A brave new world

Today’s food robotics startups operate in a very different climate than those that came before.

For one, customers are more conscious of hygiene and prefer to minimize contact when ordering, collecting, and eating food, especially after Covid-19. In fact, robot chefs were in full swing at venues allocated to the Olympic games in China in February. There, mechanical arms assembled one hamburger after another and delivered them via an overhead grid.

While sitting down to enjoy a coffee was the norm in Malaysia before the pandemic, customers now increasingly prefer to have their coffee for takeaway, says Ho Eeyong, founder of Brewed Coffee Malaysia. “They were also more attentive to how food is handled in food and beverage settings,” she adds. Brewed Coffee is a robot barista startup based in Kuala Lumpur.

Preference for contactless options also gave rise to new customer behaviors that would have been “unthinkable” in the pre-Covid era, says Gavin Pathross, CEO and founder of Ross Digital. He was previously chief digital officer for three years at Yum Brands, a holding company that operates the KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell brands.

Pathross notes how patrons at Ratio – a restaurant that Ross Digital runs – intuitively scan QR codes to convey their orders to a robot barista. Ross Digital also provides end-to-end restaurant operating systems and F&B automation solutions. Ross Digital currently operates more than 15 commercial robot barista units and has partnerships with major franchises such as Kaffe and Toast in Singapore.

In contrast, the attitude of US consumers toward robots in restaurants was largely ambivalent before the pandemic. While restaurateurs had many incentives for automation, customers didn’t see much of a need to change the way they dined.

Covid catalyst

Both US-based pioneers and players in Southeast Asia have to grapple with the exorbitant cost of building and maintaining their food-making robots.

Ross Digital’s robot barista, for example, costs between US$2,000 to US$4,000 to deploy. In contrast, baristas in Singapore are paid an average monthly wage of S$2,157 (US$1,552), according to Indeed.

But unlike their Silicon Valley peers, Brewed Coffee and Ross Digital have the chance to capitalize on the tighter labor market created by Covid-19.

Perfecting their own game

Can the good times last?