Hyphen raises $24M to automate commercial kitchens

Hyphen, a company developing automation solutions for commercial kitchens, raised $24 million in Series A funding.

Its first product, Makeline, automates the assembly of delivery, take-out and drive-through digital orders. The company created it to be a replacement of a restaurant’s existing makeline. Makeline can assemble 350 meals per hour. 

The company also offers KitchenOS to leverage data collected from Makeline. KitchenOS can provide insights such as notifying a line cook about what food to prepare next and in what quantity. Hyphen claims its number of customers has tripled in the past twelve months.

Hyphen plans to use the funding to build out its factory, expand into new markets, further research and development for next-generation products, and deploy with customers in the United States. The company will be hiring designers, engineers and operators to support its expansion.

“We’re thrilled to bring on such a strong group of strategic investors to support our mission of putting commercial kitchens on autopilot,” Hyphen’s CEO and co-founder Stephen Klein said. “Razor-thin margins have plagued the restaurant industry for decades, but the pandemic exacerbated this with inefficient fulfillment of digital orders and a massive labor shortage. Hyphen solves this dilemma by automating the assembly process. Our Makeline automates the production of digital orders, and our KitchenOS augments labor with efficient workflows and actionable insights.”

Tiger Global led the funding round, and Steve Fredette, the co-founder and president of Toast, also participated. Previous investors, like Marco Rowan, the co-founder and CEO of Apollo Global Management, and Donald Moore, the former chief culinary officer and EVP at Cheesecake Factory.

Hyphen was founded in 2020 and is based in San Jose, California. Its goal is to use software and robotics to make food faster, fresher and more accessible. To date, it has raised a total of $34.4 million.