Dishcraft Robotics

Dishcraft Robotics develops robots for commercial kitchens for automating dishwashing and is the first of its kind in the US. In June 2019, the company unveiled a new robotic dish-cleaning system designed to minimize the time and effort humans spend scrubbing dishes. It uses a vision-based artificial intelligence (AI) system to inspect plates and clean them again if it finds food remnants.

The robot dishwasher was created with the primary aim of providing solutions for high employee turnover (average tenure one month and 12 days) and worker safety (around one-fourth of accidents in a commercial kitchen happen in front of the sink).

Still in its pilot phase, the robotic system is installed at the company’s location instead of the customer's site. The company operates a delivery system within a 25-mile radius to drop off clean dishware and cutlery at restaurants or corporate kitchens and to pick up the dirty dishes throughout the day. This eliminates the need for a dish room at commercial kitchens and restaurants. Further, even if the robot was for sale (value not disclosed), it most certainly would be price-prohibitive for users.

Dishcraft’s future plans include moving forward from the limited set of plates used by the company to handle anything that needs cleaning in a kitchen. Further, amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, in May 2020, the company announced expansion of its service to include reusable to-go containers and utensils cleaning as a service. Even though this program had been on the company’s roadmap, it had to be fast-tracked as takeout became the only viable option for foodservice providers. The containers, developed in collaboration with the environmental non-profit Upstream, were first launched in an April 2021 pilot program at the restaurant Tootsie in Palo Alto, California.

In May 2020, Dishcraft Robotics raised USD 20 million in a Series A funding round led by Grit Ventures with participation from First Round Capital, Baseline Ventures, Fuel Capital, and Lemnos. The company expects to use this funding to add reusable to-go containers and dishes to its offerings aimed at filling a growing need caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and to expand its dishwashing hub in San Carlos, California.

Key competitors: None comparable (Dishcraft Robotics is the only startup that offers an automated dishwashing solution)