A company called Connected Robotics (CR) that develops specialized robot systems for cooking in restaurant kitchens has announced that it has raised $7.8 million during a Series A investment round.

According to CR, the company combines “robot control know-how” collected from robot product development experience in manufacturing along with sensing and learning technology using deep learning, which helps make the robots in the kitchen intelligent.

CR says that it wants to develop robot systems that handle the heavy lifting in the kitchen, so that restaurant staff can focus on the “more humanistic” side of work to provide a positive environment for those serving and customers alike. 

“I actually worked at a restaurant after graduate school but my health broke down within a year due to overwork from the long hours and heavy manual labor,” says Tetsuya Sawanobori, CEO.

“This firsthand experience has made me determined to bring about relief to those in the kitchen by replacing simple and heavy work with robots.”

Right not, CR has a “Takoyaki” robot service called “Octo Chef” that uses deep learning to judge the cooking condition of Takoyaki, as well as an automatic soft-serve ice cream robot service called “Reita” in the market.

The company says that it will “accelerate research and development toward the productization” of an automatic dishwasher robot service called “Dish Washing System,” “Hot Snack Robots” for convenience stores, and an automatic breakfast cooking robot service “Loraine.”

“We decided to invest in Connected Robotics Inc that has such an advanced development of cooking robot technology since we recognize their high marketability,” says Yasuhiko Yurimoto, CEO of Global Brain Corporation, the lead investor of the round.  

“We want to support the business growth of Connected Robotics which will in turn contribute to the alleviation of the shortage of human resources in the food and beverage industry and beyond.”