Miso Robotics is focused on two red-hot areas of technology: artificial intelligence (AI) and yes, robotics. This helps explain why the startup has been so successful with its equity crowdfunding campaign. Keep in mind that you can invest in Miso Robotics on SeedInvest.
Founded in the summer of 2016, the company is the creator of Flippy, which is a robot assistant designed to cook food at restaurants.
Early on, Miso Robotics got lots of traction. The company raised several rounds of venture capital and struck partnerships with restaurant chains like CaliBurger. What’s more, there was rapid innovation with Flippy, as the AI made it smarter and more effective.
The Latest on Miso Robotics
The restaurant industry is certainly ripe for automation. After all, the margins are relatively low because of the high costs of labor, food and real estate. The adverse impact of the novel coronavirus has only made all this even worse.
So how can Miso Robotics help? According to the investor presentation, Flippy can lead to 3X improvement in earnings before interest, taxes, debt and amortization (EBITDA).
No doubt, the underlying technology for Flippy is at the cutting edge. The system’s “brain” is in the cloud — which has over-the-air upgrades — and there is the use of sophisticated AI algorithms for scheduling and action planning, trajectory planning and computer vision. For example, when Flippy was deployed at Dodgers Stadium for a three-month period, there was only one vision error out of 6,625 baskets cooked.
Another innovation for Flippy is an overhead rail system — that is, the robot can be suspended above the stove and other equipment. This means there is zero real estate footprint.
Note that Flippy has 12 patents pending and one has been approved. The system has also received full certification by NSF International for meeting sanitation standards for commercial kitchen equipment and obtained an ETL Listed Mark by Intertek for meeting UL electrical safety standards.
All About the Market Opportunity
As for the market opportunity — which is definitely key for those who want to invest in Miso Robotics — it is enormous.
The company is targeting the quick-service restaurant (QSR) category, which has over 280,000 locations in the U.S. In fact, the revenue opportunity is close to $7 billion. Miso Robotics’ business model involves an upfront payment of $25,000 per robot and a monthly subscription of $1,000. The company estimates that revenues will reach $4.9 million this year and hit $176.7 million by 2023
With the novel coronavirus, there has more interest in automation systems as a way to improve safety as well. To this end, Miso Robotics has partnered with PathSpot Technologies, which develops sanitation technologies to detect contaminants that carry food borne illness.
Should You Invest in Miso Robotics?
So far, the company has raised over $6.6 million from over 3,000 investors. The pre-money valuation is set at $80 million.
The crowdfunding campaign is for a Series C round that involves the issuance of preferred stock, which has a 1x liquidation preference. This means that — if there is a buyout — the investors will get their money back before other shareholders get proceeds.
The minimum to invest in Miso Robotics is $1,493. There are also a variety of perks. For example, if you invest between $5,000 and $9,999, you will get two Miso Robotics hats, a voucher for 20 free CaliBurgers, four tickets to a regular Dodgers game and a $100 CaliBurger gift card.
But of course, as is the case with private investing, there are considerable risks. Miso Robotics is still in the early stages and Flippy has not been deployed at scale. There are also other rivals on the market, like Creator.
Thus, before making an investment decision, it is important to do your own due diligence.
On the date of publication, Tom Taulli did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article.
Tom Taulli (@ttaulli) is an advisor/board member for startups and author of various books and online courses about technology, including Artificial Intelligence Basics, The Robotic Process Automation Handbook and Learn Python Super Fast. He is also the founder of WebIPO, which was one of the first platforms for public offerings during the 1990s.
Investing through equity and real estate crowdfunding or asset tokenization requires a high degree of risk tolerance. Despite what individual companies may promise, there’s always the chance of losing a portion, or the entirety, of your investment. These risks include:
1) Greater chance of failure
2) Risk of fraudulent activity
3) Lack of liquidity
4) Economic downturns
5) Dearth of investor education
Read more: Private Investing Risks
