• Blendid, a smoothie-making robotic kiosk developer, has expanded its partnership with Jamba, a lifestyle brand serving smoothies, juices, bowls, and bites, to pilot co-branded robots at two university locations—Georgia College in Milledgeville, Georgia and Kennesaw State University in Marietta, Georgia. This marks the companies’ first kiosk deployment at college campuses and Blendid’s entry into Georgia.

• Customers can place orders in person at the kiosk or via Blendid’s mobile app and make payment using college dining cards. They can choose from seven smoothies and Jamba’s popular boosts, and they can customize the orders based on the macronutrient breakdown.

• The companies are also evaluating the possibility of launching the unit at more locations such as gyms, hospitals, and airports.

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: Blendid and Jamba currently operate two co-branded locations; one at a Walmart store (December 2020) and the other at a shopping mall (October 2021)—both in California. Even though this is their first co-branded kiosk deployment at university campuses, Blendid has conducted successful pilots of its own-branded robots at universities in California and thus would know the clientele. The necessary funds for the expansion were made available to the company in September 2021, when it raised USD 2 million via a crowdfunding campaign partially to expand reach into Georgia by opening in a range of locations including universities.</ul>