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 robot, Alpha Grill, which automates back-of-house tasks and allows restaurants to work smarter, cook faster, and serve more consistent, quality food even in a rush. 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 and 2024 Kitchen Innovations Awards, finalist honors in Amazon’s 2022 AWS Robotics Startup Accelerator, and many more.

In 2024, Aniai successfully secured a $12 million pre-Series A funding round. Led by InterVest, one of the largest venture capital firms in South Korea, the round includes investments from new investors, such as SV Investment and UK-based Ignite Innovation, as well as from an existing investor, Capstone Partners. This most recent investment brings Aniai’s total funding to date to $15 million.

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 Alpha Cloud, AI-Powered food quality assurance 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.

Headquarters: New York

R&D, 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)

Restaurant Partners:

North America: Several leading North American hamburger brands

South Korea: Lotteria, Cry Cheese Burger, THE 100, DOWNTOWNER, BAS BURGER, CJ Freshway, Mom’s Touch, Teisty Burger, Fault Burger

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

2023: $3M Seed round led by Capstone Partners and Lotte Ventures

2024: $12 Million Pre-Series A funding led by InterVest with partic pation from SV Investment, Ignite Innovation, and Capstone Partners

>> Aniai launches accuracy tool for burger-making robot

>>National Restaurant Association Show to Honor Top Technology Innovations in Its 2024 Kitchen Awards

>>Aniai is bringing a burger-cooking robot to restaurants with $12M

>>Aniai’s Hamburger Cooking Robot to Expand in North America

>>This robot can cook a burger in less than 60 seconds

>>The Tech Race for Cooking the Perfect Burger: Aniai Unveils Game-Changing Robotic Kitchen

>>Aniai Wins 2023 Kitchen Innovations Award

>>Aniai’s Alpha Grill Attracts $3M Seed Investment

>>Aniai Partners with Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and Abe’s Corner

>>Aniai is Selected for Amazon’s AWS Startup Accelerator Program

>>Aniai Selected for Participation in Microsoft for Startups