Pasadena-based Miso Robotics has partnered with yet another major restaurant chain to deploy its automated food-service technology—this time teaming with Panera Bread to roll out an AI-powered coffee monitoring system that aims to provide customers with freshly brewed coffee throughout the day.
Panera will begin using Miso’s CookRight Coffee system at select Midwest locations later this month, the companies said Tuesday. The technology uses proprietary sensors that can measure coffee temperature, how much coffee has been dispensed and how long since a newly brewed batch was last placed in a coffee urn, making it easier for Panera workers to maintain their coffee stations.
The tablet that Panera employees will use to check coffee metrics. Courtesy of Miso Robotics
Miso began developing CookRight Coffee in September with input from Panera, whose employees had complained that the constant back-and-forth of checking on the restaurant’s coffee dispensers was a time suck. Miso sought to address those concerns by designing a user interface that allows Panera employees to access and view a coffee station’s metrics on a tablet without needing to physically check the urns.
Miso Robotics chief strategy officer Jake Brewer.
Courtesy of Miso Robotics
“We are fortunate that Panera was seeking something to solve this need; at the same time, we were seeking to develop something to solve this for the [restaurant] industry,” Miso chief strategy officer Jake Brewer told dot.LA. “While [Panera employees are] doing their primary tasks—serving the guests and making food—they can always be monitoring the coffee.”
Brewer did not provide the price of the CookRight Coffee system or financial details of Miso’s partnership with Panera.
Last month, the robotics startup partnered with fast-casual chain Chipotle on an AI-enabled tortilla chip-making machine dubbed “Chippy,” which will be trialed at one of Chipotle’s Southern California locations later this year.
It’s also teamed with burger chain White Castle on a burger-flipping robot nicknamed “Flippy,” and is developing an automated soda fountain machine named “Sippy.”
“We’re able to scale products quicker and quicker, because we’re using the same building blocks,” Brewer said. “Coffee was just the next one that was kind of timed with a big customer who was looking for it.”
Miso, which is backed by Santa Monica-based food-tech incubator Wavemaker Labs, is currently in the process of raising a Series E funding round that initially launched with a $40 million target. Brewer said Miso has already secured more than $5 million in funding through the round, which he noted is now projected to raise between $25 million to $30 million in total capital.
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