Seattle-based barista robot company Artly has raised $8 million.
Artly announced the raise, which the startup is calling a "Pre-A" round, on Monday. It follows the startup's recent expansion into Seattle with a location at 101 Stewart St., near Pike Place Market, where customers can buy coffee drinks.
"With the help of advanced AI technologies such as imitation learning and vision-language generative models, our robots can now adapt to new environments and carry out complex and ambiguous tasks," Meng Wang, CEO of Artly, said in a release. "A much wider audience can now enjoy the creation of a skilled barista, losslessly, just as what recorders and speakers are to a singer or printers to a writer or painter."
Artly, founded in 2020, makes robot baristas designed to learn different coffee drinks from human baristas. Customers can order different coffee drinks from their phones, and the robot uses mechanical arms to make the drink. According to Artly, its robots use computer vision and deep learning, with the help of a barista, to make its coffee drinks, and the robots can detect anomalies and avoid obstacles.
In addition to its Seattle location, Artly has three locations in the Bay Area and one in Portland. On its website, Artly lists a variety of lattes and other coffee drinks on its menu, including an iced mocha, a honey rose latte and a matcha latte.
The startup has hired Starbucks veteran Daniel Lee as vice president. Lee spent more than eight years with Starbucks and was most recently the district manager for San Mateo County, according to his LinkedIn page.
“Our AI technology, relentless focus on quality and service, and successful business model will allow Artly to thrive post-pandemic," Lee said in a release. "I’m excited to bring Artly and our family of coffee ambassadors to all 50 states and beyond."
