Bobacino

Bobacino develops a fully automated artificial intelligence (AI)-powered “boba tea bar” which uses fresh and organic ingredients. The robotic kiosk, still in the prototype stage, uses an articulating arm to mix tea, sweetened milk, syrup, and tapioca balls. Users can place orders and make payments via credit/debit cards or use facial recognition payment company PoPID’s PopPay e-wallet solutions. The pre-launch product will be marketed toward college campuses, shopping malls, airports, and business parks. Its business model would consist of owning and operating its machines, and co-branding with existing boba tea brands.

Reportedly, the unit would take only 1–2 weeks to be installed and cost only USD 50,000, vs a traditional coffee shop that takes roughly a year to set up, costing approximately USD 200,000–USD 375,000. The company claims installing Bobacino tea bars will help generate profit margins of roughly 31% compared to 4.1% profit margins at traditional coffee shops. Furthermore, this could reportedly bring down employee wages to roughly 10% of revenue (vs. an average of 26% at traditional coffee shops). The company also has a product development and deployment partnership with boba cafe chain Boba Guys (July 2022).

Bobacino is backed by lead investors, AI, and robotics-focused venture capital firm Embark Ventures, and automation-focused venture studio, Wavemaker Labs. Bobacino’s founding team members include food experts and robotic industry veterans from Miso Robotics, SpaceX, and Microsoft.

In August 2022, Bobacino closed its Series A equity crowdfunding round raising USD 2.2+ million. The round was extended in February 2022 targeting to raise USD 4 million at a valuation of USD 9 million (first closed in October 2021 raising USD 1.4 million). Bobacino plans to utilize the funds to complete the development of its beta prototype and deploy the same in public places.

Key competitors: None comparable (Bobacino is the only startup offering a boba tea-making robot)