Bear Robotics, a company making robot waiters, just raised a $32 million round led by SoftBank – TechCrunch

Back in August, we flagged a filing for you that we found interesting, one for a now 2.5-year-old, 40-person Redwood City, Calif.,-based startup called Bear Robotics thats been developing robots to deliver food to restaurant customers. The filing listed a $35.8 million target; Bear Robotics founder and CEO John Ha now tells us the final close, being announced today, was $32 million in Series A funding.

The round was led by SoftBank Group, whose other recent robotics bets include the currently beleaguered food truck company Zume and, as we reported yesterday, Berkshire Grey, a seven-year-old, Lexington, Mass.-based company that makes pick, pack and sorting robots for fulfillment centers and that just raised a whopping $263 million in Series B funding led by SoftBank.

Because we know youre interested in much more than Bear Robotics funding picture, we asked Ha a former Intel research scientist turned technical lead at Google who in recent years opened and closed his own restaurant to share more about the company and its robot servers.

TC: You were an engineer at Google. Why then start your own restaurant?

JH: Its not like I had a dream of having a restaurant; it was more of an investment. It sounded fun, but it didnt turn out to be fun. What I was really shocked by was how much hard work is involved and how low [employees] income is. I felt [as I was forced to close it] that this was going to be my lifes work to transform the restaurant industry with the skills I have. I wanted to remove the hard work and the repetitive tasks so that humans can focus on the truly human side, the hospitality. At restaurants, youre selling food and service, but most of your time is spent dealing with hiring people and people not showing up, and I suspect our product will change [the equation].

TC: How did you come up with the first idea or iteration of the robot youve created, that youre calling Penny?

JH: First, me and my restaurant staff constantly discussed, If we have this robot, what would it look like and what capacity and features would it need? I knew it couldnt be too big; robots have to be able to move well in narrow spaces. We also focused on the right capacity. And we didnt want to make a robotic restaurant. I wanted to build a robot that no one really cares about; its just in the background, sort of like R2-D2 to Luke Skywalker. Its a sidekick a bland robot with a weak personality to get things done for your master.

TC Lets talk parts. How are these things built?

JH: Its self-driving tech thats been adopted for indoor space, so it can safely navigate from Point A to Point B. A server puts the food on Penny, and it finds a way to get to the table. It has a two-wheel differential drive, plus casters. Its pretty safe. A lot of similar-looking robots have blind spots, but ours doesnt. It can detect baby hands on the floor even something as thin as a wallet thats fallen from someones table.

Were not using robot arms because its very difficult to make it 100% safe when you have arms in a crowded space. The material its going to be plastic is safe and easy to clean and able to work with the sanitizers and detergents used in restaurants. Weve also had to make sure the wheels wont accumulate food waste, because that would cause issues with the health department.

TC: So this isnt out in the world yet.

JH: We havent entered the mass-manufacturing phase yet.

TC: Where will these be built, and how will you charge for them?

JH: Theyll be made somewhere in Asia maybe China or some other country. And we havent figured out pricing yet but restaurants will be leasing these, not buying them, and there will be a monthly subscription fee that they are paying for a white-glove service, so they dont have to worry about maintenance or support.

TC: How customizable are these Penny robots going to be? Are there different tiers of service?

JH: Penny can be configured into several modes. The default is [for it to hold] three trays, so it can carry food to a table or a server can use it for busing help.

TC: Will it address the customers?

JH: Penny can speak and play sound, but its not conversational yet. It can say, Please take your food, or play music while its moving. Thats where customers may want to personalize the robot for their own purposes.

TC: Ultimately, the idea is for this to be sold where just restaurants?

JH: Wherever food is served, so its being tested right now in some restaurants, casinos, some homes. [Im sure well add] nursing homes, too.