Blendid

Blendid builds robotic, Artificial Intelligence-enabled food automation solutions.

Its first product is a fully autonomous robotic kiosk that makes healthy smoothies on-demand. Soon, the company aims to release kiosks that prepare salads, soups, bowls, and more.

Blendid has raised more than $13 million from venture capitalists. Notable investors include Benhamou Global Ventures, Plug & Play, Hone Capital, and Partech Ventures.

The company has been granted three patents that cover its robotic food preparation technology. And it’s generated nearly $150,000 in lifetime revenue.

Blendid kiosks have launched on college campuses including the University of San Francisco and Sonoma State University, as well as the Plug & Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, California. And just last month, the company launched a kiosk in a Walmart in Fremont, California.

Now Blendid is seeking capital to scale its business and increase its marketing efforts.

Food technology is a rapidly-growing market. In the midst of Covid-19, restaurants and food service companies are searching for ways to keep patrons and staff safe.

Advances in food technology enable these businesses to achieve those goals. These advancements include the use of robotics and AI, which can reduce potential exposure to viruses and automate food preparation.

With the food industry turning to automation, venture capital investments in this market have soared. VC investments in food tech reached nearly $5 billion in the first half of 2020, compared to $7 billion for all of 2019. Large investments — what tech VC firm Finistere Ventures calls “mega rounds” — of more than $100 million encompassed the top 10 food tech investments this year, and 50% of top agriculture tech investments.

Blendid is targeting this market by transforming the way food is prepared and served. Its autonomous, contactless, food robotics kiosks leverage advanced technology — including robotics, machine vision, and AI — to prepare and serve healthy, fresh smoothies.

The kiosks are built with aluminum, stainless steel, and plastic. Each features a three-station blender, and a modular design makes it easy to upgrade or add on components.

Kiosks feature built-in HD displays to show menu options, promotions, pricing, and real-time status of orders. They also have dashboards to notify operators when to restock ingredients or troubleshoot any issues.

Blendid originally allowed users to place orders on location through a tablet-based app. But it later expanded to a mobile app and web-based menu.

Through these portals, users can order and pay for smoothies using Apple Pay, Google Pay, credit cards, or student meal plans (where applicable).

Each kiosk offers 30 smoothie recipes. Unlike other smoothie places, Blendid’s kiosks don’t add ice to their blends. This is due to a belief that ice ends up diluting the flavor and limiting nutrition. Instead, produce is frozen at the peak of ripeness and kept frozen in the kiosk until an order is placed.

Blendid launched in 2015. Two years later, it completed the Plug & Play accelerator (notable alumni include PayPal, Dropbox, and LendingClub).

More recently, Blendid received certification from NSF, a product testing, inspection, and certification organization. And in November 2020, the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a major food retail brand to bring additional kiosks to market.

Blendid licenses its kiosks and deducts a percentage of gross revenues as a licensing fee.

With funds raised, the company will increase marketing efforts, and aims to launch more kiosks nationwide.

Team Background

Vijay Dodd - Co-Founder & VP of Engineering

Vijay has experience in hardware and software product life cycles.

Before starting Blendid, he worked with leading technology companies, including AT&T, Palm, and Barnes and Noble. During this time, he gained experience in industrial and product design and mechanical engineering.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Bangalore University, a Master’s degree in Systems and Control from the Indian Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Southeastern University.

Vipin Jain - Co-Founder & CEO

Vipin brings nearly 30 years of experience in engineering, business management, and entrepreneurship to Blendid.

Prior to starting the company, he was co-founder and CEO of Retrevo, a company specializing in machine learning to change the consumer shopping experience.

Before that, he was Vice President of Sales and Customer Care at Barnes and Noble, where he worked on the brand’s NOOK device, an electronic reader. While there, he led strategy programs and developed partnerships with Microsoft and Samsung.

Vipin holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, and a Master’s degree in Physics.

Venki Ayalur - Co-Founder & CTO

Venki has 25 years of technology experience.

Prior to starting Blendid, he oversaw the creation of software and hardware for Barnes and Noble’s e-reader device, NOOK. During that time, he also worked for Motorola Mobile.

Throughout his career, he has been awarded multiple patents in the machine learning and location discovery spaces.

He earned an MBA from Northwestern University, a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Northern Illinois University, and a Master’s degree in Engineering Technology from Birla Institute of Technology.

Co-Investors

Hone Capital

A VC firm investing in early-stage startups. Portfolio includes Cruise, Carbon Black (Nasdaq: CBLK), and SchoolMint.

Plug and Play Ventures

Seed-and-early-stage investment firm. 150 portfolio companies in Web 2.0, Software (SaaS), Social Media, Gaming, Enterprise, Cloud, and Telecom.

Partech Ventures

A global VC firm investing in seed-stage and growth-stage companies. Portfolio includes Dailymotion, Scoop.it, and Jaspersoft.

Benhamou Global Ventures

A venture capital firm with more than a dozen successful "exits" in its portfolio.