Aniai, a robotic kitchen startup from New York, has deployed 15 hamburger grill robots across burger chains in South Korea.
The move includes the integration of the robots into Lotteria, a key hamburger franchise under Lotte GRS, the food affiliate of Lotte Group.
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The company’s robotic solution, known as Alpha Grill, is designed to change the burger cooking process.
Alpha Grill is equipped with features similar to clamshell grills, including a dual-sided griddle, pre-set recipe configurations and precision output. It offers significant speed and serving automation and cooks 200 patties per hour.
Its robotic spatula also transfers the cooked patties to a warming tray, then performs self-cleaning.
This automation saves seconds with each use, enhancing customer service efficiency.
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By GlobalDataAfter a six-month trial of Alpha Grill, Lotteria experienced a significant reduction in their patty cooking process.
The startup reports that the traditional six-step process, which took nearly five minutes, has been streamlined to a single step, taking just one minute and fifty seconds.
Aniai co-founder and CEO Gunpil Hwang said: “It’s truly exciting to witness the rapid adoption of our automation technology, and the happiness it brings among kitchen staff.
“We want to ensure that not only are our customers eager to innovate with us, but their staff reap the positive benefits Alpha Grill brings to them.
“We have proved that our solution works in the commercial kitchen in South Korea; now we are taking this momentum to expand deployment to the US.”
Hwang is enthusiastic about the tie-up with Lotteria and other major burger chains, where the startup has already installed 15 grills and has 500 pre-orders.
A Lotte GRS representative said: “The impact of Alpha Grill extends to creating a safer working environment.
“By reducing the time our kitchen staff spend in front of hot grills, which is traditionally a risk for burns and heat-related injuries, Alpha Grill enhances workplace safety.”
In January 2024, Aniai raked in $12m in a pre-Series A funding round to further expand robotic cooking solutions.
