Robotics cafe startup Ratio nets $10m in series A round led by Frasers Property

Robotics cafe and lounge startup Ratio has just completed raising US$10 million in its series A round, which was led by Singapore-based property giant Frasers Property, Tech in Asia has learned.

Others that joined the round include JustCo, the Southeast Asian co-working unicorn, and zVentures, the venture arm of gaming and lifestyle brand Razer.

Ratio’s coffee-making robot / Photo credit: Ratio

The money was invested through Ross Digital, Ratio’s parent company. Till date, the Singapore and Shanghai-based firm has raised a total of US$12 million.

Launched in 2017, Ratio is a cafe and lounge that uses robotic technology to create coffee drinks and other beverages for customers. Orders can be placed through the cloud, and the robotic arms are said to serve close to 60 types of coffee and cocktail drinks.

Currently, Ratio has a total of eight robotics cafes and lounges: five in China and three in Singapore.

The round was oversubscribed, so the company is considering a series A+ round in the second half of 2021, Ratio CEO and founder, Gavin Pathross, who also serves as chief executive of Ross Digital, tells Tech in Asia.

The new funds will support Ross Digital’s plan to expand in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia this year and to roll out its robotic arm units to customers. The company is also looking to boost its engineering and IT teams in Singapore and Shanghai “by another 20 people in the next 12 months,” said Pathross.

Besides this, Ratio will be investing heavily in research and development to reduce the manufacturing costs of its robots, making them cheaper for customers.

Pathross further said that by the end of 2021, the company aims to produce 40 robotic arms, which will include units to food and beverage (F&B) customers as well as their own cafes.

Ratio’s clients either franchise its cafe and lounge or lease its technology for their own F&B businesses. Customers can rent the robotic arm units for between US$2,000 to US$4,000 a month, depending on the configuration.

At present, the robotic arms are configured to create drinks from Nanyang kopi, which is popular in the Southeast Asian market, to Western-style coffees and cocktails.

Ross Digital is now in the R&D stage of building new robots for non-beverage categories like food.