A Charlestown-based robotics company has raised new funds, just a few months after its food preparation robot Alfred made its restaurant industry debut.
Dexai Robotics Inc. has brought in nearly $6.7 million in equity funding, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week.
Co-founder and CEO David Johnson said in an email that the company is “thrilled to have raised more funds” but did not provide additional details after a request for comment.
Dexai spun out from the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in 2018. The company is pursuing a robotics-as-a-service business model and building robots to work in food preparation. Johnson told BostInno in May of this year that some of its robots are already working on a military base, in a commercial kitchen and at a cafeteria.
That same month, Dexai's food preparation robot Alfred got its first job in the restaurant industry, making salads and bowls at fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant BONAPITA in West Roxbury.
Johnson said Alfred was designed to use AI and computer vision to engage with utensils and ingredients. Alfred learns the recipes of whichever chef or restaurant it is working with, Johnson said, making it adaptable to different settings and cuisines. The company’s robotics-as-a-service model means that its customers—the kitchens employing the robots—are charged a fee for each dish the robot prepares.
The company was founded to help address the labor gap in the restaurant industry, which has only increased during the pandemic. Johnson said the robot can take on repetitive tasks in food preparation.
“It’s actually a little slower than what a person does, but it just keeps going and going and going. And it’s getting faster all the time,” Johnson previously told BostInno.
At the BONAPITA debut, Johnson said this location would allow other potential customers to view Alfred and its capabilities. The company started shipping Alfred robots last December and expected to increase deliveries after this restaurant launch.
Dexai’s last publicly-announced funding was a $5.5 million seed round in March 2020 led by Hyperplane Venture Capital. According to Crunchbase, the company also raised a pre-seed round for an undisclosed sum in 2019 led by NFX. In May the company had 20 employees.
