Miso Robotics, Panera Bread Team on Coffee Monitoring System

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Miso Robotics, Panera Bread Team on Coffee Monitoring System
Courtesy of Miso Robotics

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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LA Tech ‘Moves’: LeaseLock, Visgenx, PlayVS and Pressed Juicery Gains New CEOs

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech ‘Moves’: LeaseLock, Visgenx, PlayVS and Pressed Juicery Gains New CEOs
LA Tech ‘Moves’:

“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.

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LeaseLock, a lease insurance and financial technology provider for the rental housing industry named Janine Steiner Jovanovic as chief executive officer. Prior to this role, Steiner Jovanovic served as the former EVP of Asset Optimization at RealPage.

Esports platform PlayVS hired EverFi co-founder and seasoned business leader Jon Chapman as the company’s chief executive officer.

Biotechnology company Visgenx appointed William Pedranti, J.D. as chief executive officer. Before joining, Mr. Pedranti was a partner with PENG Life Science Ventures.

Pressed Juicery, the leading cold-pressed juice and functional wellness brand welcomed Justin Nedelman as chief executive officer. His prior roles include chief real estate officer of FAT Brands Inc. and co-founder of Eureka! Restaurant Group.

Michael G. Vicari joined liquid biopsy company Nucleix as chief commercial officer. Vicari served as senior vice president of Sales at GRAIL, Inc.

Full-service performance marketing agency Allied Global Marketing promoted Erin Corbett to executive vice president of global partnership and marketing. Prior to joining Allied, Corbett's experience included senior marketing roles at Disney, Warner Bros. Studios, Harrah's Entertainment and Imagi Animation Studios.

Nuvve, a vehicle-to-grid technology company tapped student transportation and automotive sales and marketing executive David Bercik to lead the K-12 student transportation division.

This Week in ‘Raises’: Curri Scoops Up $42M, Mosaic Scores $26M

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Raises
Image by Joshua Letona

A local logistics platform raised fresh funding to put toward product development, infrastructure and sales and marketing initiatives, while a San Diego-based fintech company closed its Series C funding round to expand its investment in AI which will empower high-growth SMB and mid-market finance leaders.

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Venture Capital

Curri, a Ventura-based logistics platform, raised a $42 million Series B funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.

San Diego-based financial platform Mosaic raised a $26 million Series C funding round led by OMERS Ventures.

AHARA, a Los Angeles-based startup focused on providing personalized nutrition suggestions, raised a $10.25 million seed funding round led by Greycroft.

Per an SEC filing, San Diego-based developer of peptide therapeutics designed to assist in the treatment of autoimmune diseases and disorders selectIon raised $5 million in funding.

Miscellaneous

Los Angeles-based Sensydia, a company working on non-invasive cardiac diagnostics, said this morning that it has received $3 million in a NIH grant.

Raises is dot.LA’s weekly feature highlighting venture capital funding news across Southern California’s tech and startup ecosystem. Please send fundraising news to Decerry Donato (decerrydonato@dot.la).

Why a Downturn in Esports Investments Isn’t Something To Fear

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

Why a Downturn in Esports Investments Isn’t Something To Fear
Samson Amore

Last year, global venture capital investment in esports dropped by more than 40%. Investors have been rapidly selling off teams and franchises, and the industry has witnessed a consistent decline in ad spend. This has prompted many critics to coin the term “esports winter,” referring to a fall-off in the industry, an indication that VCs believe their investments didn’t achieve success as expected.

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