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Aniai, a provider of robotic kitchen solutions, has successfully secured $12 million in a pre-Series A funding round. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in New York, US, Aniai’s mission is to empower foodservice businesses to improve their kitchen operations by delivering automated and AI-powered solutions to increase production, reduce costs and enhance service quality. The funding round was led by South Korean venture capital firm InterVest. New investors participating included SV Investment and UK-based Ignite Innovation, alongside existing investor Capstone Partners. This most recent investment brings the company’s total funding to date to $15 million. It aims to fast-track the launch of Aniai’s first dedicated manufacturing facility in South Korea, ‘Factory One,’ to help ensure stable production and supply chain management for its flagship Alpha Grill solution. Alpha Grill is a robotic solution for cooking hamburgers, featuring a double-sided grill that can cook up to eight patties simultaneously or 200 patties per hour. When deployed in a kitchen, Alpha Grill can help restaurants to streamline operations by eliminating repetitive tasks associated with hamburger patty cooking tasks, such as pressing and flipping. Benefits include reduced coking time and decreased labour intensity for employees. Gunpil Hwang, CEO and co-founder of Aniai, said: “This capital infusion will help our mission to improve kitchen productivity through robotics and automation while helping us ramp-up production to meet current and future demand”. Hwang added: “Additionally, Aniai plans to augment its robotic solutions by adding advanced, cloud-based AI software to further enhance the capabilities and performance of the Alpha Grill early this year, which will benefit new and existing Aniai customers”. The upcoming software release for Alpha Grill will include an AI-powered feature to discern the colour of the hamburger patties and assess their quality through real-time vision sensors during the cooking process. If a hamburger patty does not meet the brand’s cooking specifications and requirements, the Alpha Grill will promptly notify the cooking staff to ensure “rigorous and enhanced” quality control. According to Aniai, Factory One will have the capacity to produce over 1,000 Alpha Grill units per year when operational. A representative from lead investor, InterVest, said that Aniai can deliver “industry-leading” profitable impact to its customers, adding: “The company enhanced its value by pioneering a new market and securing substantial contracts within a brief timeframe. We look forward to seeing the positive impact that Aniai's cooking robots will make on the US Quick Service Restaurant industry." Aniai has been piloting Alpha Grill with several North American hamburger brands since Q3 of 2023, targeting multiple implementations and initial rollouts within the next 12 months. The company has already successfully deployed the solution in seven South Korean hamburger franchises.