Chowbotics, Redwood City, Calif., received $11 million of Series A-1 funding led by Foundry Group, Boulder, Colo., and Techstars, Boulder, Colo.  

“Chowbotics has released the first commercially available robotic food equipment in the industry. We consider them the top company in the emerging space of robotic food equipment. I’ve personally enjoyed working with them up close as a member of their board of directors. It was a no-brainer to continue investing in them,” says Jason Mendelson, partner and managing director of the Foundry Group. 

Founded by Dr. Deepak Sekar, an inventor with more than 125 patents, Chowbotics created Sally the Salad Robot for the foodservice industry. Via a touchscreen user interface, Sally makes salads in approximately one minute with any combination of up to 22 ingredients. The robot offers more than 10,000 custom salad options. Users can also fine-tune the calorie total by adding or subtracting ingredients.

“Techstars has been working with Chowbotics since their early days in the Techstars Austin mentorship-driven accelerator. We found them impressive, and therefore funded their Seed and Series A rounds. Having seen their progress up close as a member of their board of directors the past year and a half, we are delighted to co-lead this round with Foundry Group,” says David Cohen, founder and co-CEO at Techstars. 

Chowbotics plans to use the additional funding to extend the Sally platform beyond salads, for example, grain bowls, breakfast bowls, poke bowls, acai bowls and yogurt bowls.

Chowbotics is also ramping up its sales and operations teams with the additional funding. For example, Warren Manzer, president of foodservice for Clipper and senior vice president at Crown Brands, joined Chowbotics as vice president of foodservice sales.

Rory Bevins, senior vice president at La Bottega Americas and global vice president at Molton Brown, joined Chowbotics as vice president of hospitality.

Lee Greer, chief marketing officer at Jason’s Deli, joined Chowbotics as vice president of its off-premise kitchen business unit.

Shelley Janes, who was head of partnerships at CarDash and chief executive officer of SideDoor, joined Chowbotics as director of sales, responsible for the western region of the United States.

Nolan Schachter, who was director of sales and marketing at TeaBot, joined Chowbotics as director of sales, responsible for Canada.