Problem: Kitchens are filled with technology better suited for the 1900s than the 2000s.
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Solution: A few weeks ago, PC Mag released The Best Smart Kitchen Appliances for 2021. The gadgets ranged from IoT Meat Thermometers to Precision Ovens, but I was surprised by how many were still quite “dumb.” Products like an Amazon Basics Microwave or a Steam Oven were amongst the most “smart” of this year. As Modest Proposal joked on Twitter, this industry is so tech-starved that any experienced technology executive interested in the industry is worth noting.
Perhaps one of the best ways to understand the future of food is by looking at how Smart Kitchen Innovators are thinking. The 2020 Smart Kitchen Summit is one great example. Below are a few of the sessions hosted at this conference:
Data-Driven Personalization in Food & Cooking (“this session explored how data and AI will create more personalized meal choices from the restaurant to the home kitchen”)
Future Fresh: Rethinking The Vending Machine (“In the era of COVID, contactless, smart vending is more important than ever. We talk to two CEOs rethinking the future of smart vending.”)
Building a Cell-Based Meat Startup (“Hardware is hard. But we're willing to bet those on the front lines of reimagining protein using biotechnology is a whole new level of challenging.”)
Panel: Using Innovation To Reduce Food Waste (“A conversation about reducing food waste from farm to fork”)
The Next-Gen Microwave: AI, Precision, Personalized (“What will the next-generation microwave look like? More importantly, what new business models will it unlock in the kitchen?”)
… and more sessions!
From meat-printers to reduced food waste, to smart blenders, the future of food is bright; however, it is taking a significant amount of time to trickle-down to the average consumer. This business would accelerate that trickling.
In particular, the business would invest in taking innovations reserved for “luxury” use-cases (high-end restaurants, automated fast food chains, the kitchens of wealthy individuals) and moving them down-stream at an affordable cost to the typical consumer. More than just creating smart temperature guns or touchless trash cans (two of the “best smart kitchen gadgets of 2020”), the business would try to execute on a mission to “prepare nourishing food at the click of a button.”
One great company innovating in this space is Moley Robotics which bills itself as “The world's first robotic kitchen.” Looking at their prototypes and images are impressive and, as their team describes,
The Moley kitchen is a fully automated kitchen unit, consisting of cabinets, robotic arms and hands, a recipe recording system, a connected GUI screen with access to a library of recipes, and a full set of kitchen appliances and equipment that have been optimized for both for robot and human use.
More importantly, the market is already large and continues to grow. As described by MarketsAndMarkets,
The global food robotics market size is estimated to be valued at USD 1.9 billion in 2020 and projected to reach USD 4.0 billion by 2026, recording a CAGR of 13.1% forecast period. The demand for food robotics is increasing significantly owing to surging demand for food with increasing population and increasing demand for enhanced productivity in food processing. Additionally, increasing automation in the food industry is projected to provide growth opportunities for the food robotics market.
Building better technology in kitchens today (whether through smart IoT devices or more complex robotics) is a step towards a unicorn company of the future.
Monetization: Sales of these robots at an affordable price tag for the average consumer ($2,000 or less).
Contributed by: Michael Bervell (Billion Dollar Startup Ideas)