American food delivery company DoorDash has acquired robotic startup Chowbotics, known for creating the Fresh Food Robot that makes custom meals.
The financial terms of the deal were not shared.
Chowbotics’ robot is designed to create made-to-order fresh meals, including customisable salads, parfaits, grain and poke bowls, cereals and snacks, within a 3ft x 3ft space.
The company has deployed its product in a number of locations such as universities, hospitals, and grocery stores.
Doordash said: “The level of autonomy, accessibility, and customisation that Chowbotics provides to consumers is proven and unmatched.”
With the addition of Chowbotics, Doordash expects to help the merchants on its platform expand their current menu offerings.
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By GlobalDataAdditionally, it will enable the company to expand its customer base into new markets without needing to invest in a completely new store.
The company noted: “At DoorDash, we strive to become a merchant’s first call when they want to grow their business.
“The addition of Chowbotics’s capabilities allows us to enhance our broad array of merchant services, which include customer acquisition, on-demand delivery, insights and analytics, and white-label order fulfilment, and in a more cost-effective way.”
In December last year, DoorDash raised nearly $3.4bn through its initial public offering (IPO) after increasing its price range a week before.
The SoftBank-backed company was initially planning to raise up to $2.8bn through the IPO at the price range of $75 and $85 per share.
In 2019, DoorDash signed a definitive agreement to acquire food-ordering platform Caviar from financial and merchant services company Square.
Meanwhile, many foodservice companies are looking to automate food production as the demand for delivery increased during the pandemic.
Recently, Blendid partnered with smoothie chain Jamba to launch a co-branded location at Walmart in the US, featuring the first robotic smoothie kiosk.
In July last year, US-based hamburger chain White Castle was set to trial Miso Robotics’ autonomous kitchen assistant as it seeks to modernise operations.