Press Resources

Aniai Innovates Groundbreaking Robotics for Greater Kitchens

Founded in 2020, Aniai, Inc. is a global robotic innovator that’s committed to optimizing restaurants and increasing efficiency through leading-edge automation solutions. The company was founded to address widespread labor shortages within the food service industry. As worker scarcities grow, the hospitality sector is faced with ever-increasing operational costs, lower productivity, and razor-thin profit margins. Aniai is meeting these challenges head-on with robotic kitchen integrations like its hamburger cooking robots, Alpha Grill and Alpha Kitchen, which automate back-of-house tasks and allow restaurants to work smarter, cook faster, and serve more consistently high-quality food, even during rush hours. This leads to increased profits, safer and easier working conditions for employees, and better, more consistent food for customers.

Since its inception, Aniai has won multiple awards for its innovative robot solutions, including the National Restaurant Association’s 2023 Kitchen Innovations Awards, finalist honors in Amazon’s 2022 AWS Robotics Startup Accelerator, and many more.

Aniai is already making a name for itself, having won a prestigious partnership with the Brooklyn Chain of Commerce, which will place its flagship Alpha Grill in Abe’s Corner, one of the town’s most prominent restaurants.

In 2023, Aniai was awarded an incredible $3M seed round investment led by Capstone Partners and Lotte Ventures. As the company continues expanding its presence, it remains steadfast in its mission to improve kitchen efficiencies through innovative AI and automation solutions.

Automated Cooking. Advanced Efficiency. Incredible Hamburgers.

Aniai's flagship product, Alpha Grill, is designed to cook hamburgers easily, efficiently, and with consistent quality. Featuring a double -sided grill design and a rapid cooking system, the Alpha Grill is able to cook eight perfect burger patties simultaneously or 200 patties per hour. When Alpha Grill is deployed in a kitchen, restaurant brands can streamline operations by eliminating repetitive tasks associated with hamburger patty cooking tasks such as pressing and flipping. This not only reduces cooking time but also decreases labor intensity for employees.

Alpha Grill is packed with AI components to check and control food quality. With an intuitive touch-screen monitor, users can customize cooking conditions, access real-time quality metrics, operational stats, inventory data, and more. All of these features allow restaurants to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and serve better burgers.

Aniai is furthering its product line by innovating “Alpha Kitchen,” a burger cooking robot that handles 100% of the cooking, set to launchin in 2025.

Headquarters: New York

APAC Office: Seoul, South Korea

Executives: Passionate and Experienced Leadership

CEO & Co-Founder: Gunpil Hwang (Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering)

CTO & Co-Founder: Minsu Ji (Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering)

CBO: Yongkwon Lee (MBA)

Head of Sales: Eric Hansen (MBA)

Restaurant Partners: LOTTERIA, Cry Cheese Burger, Abe's Corner, THE 100, DOWNTOWNER, BAS BURGER, CJ FRESHWAY, Mom’s Touch, Teisty Burger, Fault Burger

Technology Partners: AWS, Microsoft

Financial Partners: Bluepoint Partners, CAPSTONE, LOTTE VENTURES, InterVest, SV Investment, Ignite Innovation