GoodBytz

GoodBytz, a Hamburg-based company established in August 2021, is addressing the chronic shortage of skilled workers in the catering and hospitality sector through robotic kitchen solutions. The company was founded by CEO Dr. Hendrik Susemihl, COO Kevin Deutmarg, and CTO Philipp von Stürmer, a team with prior collaborative experience at the Fraunhofer Institute and Neura Robotics. Their mission is to automate a wide range of kitchen tasks with precision, from cutting and weighing ingredients to cooking and cleaning.

The company's core product is a modular robotic kitchen assistant capable of preparing up to 3,000 meals per day, or 150 meals per hour. This system utilizes robotic arms, advanced sensors, and digital precision control to perform various culinary functions, including baking, cooking, and frying. It features refrigerated storage for 24 to 72 different ingredients, food assembly modules, and a cooking zone. A key selling point is its user-friendly interface, which allows chefs and operators to customize recipes and meal preparations via a touchscreen without needing programming skills. The system also automatically stores data for HACCP protocols, ensuring food safety standards. The business model operates on a robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) basis, where clients pay a fixed monthly service fee for the hardware, supplemented by a per-dish production cost.

GoodBytz serves a broad market, including restaurants, ghost kitchens, school canteens, hotels, company cafeterias, hospitals, and care homes. The company has already deployed its robots with clients like Sodexo in France and has established partnerships with system suppliers Palux and Winterhalter. A notable achievement includes operating a ghost kitchen for the delivery service Lieferando, where the robot-prepared meals ranked in the top 15% of restaurants based on customer reviews, with customers unaware their food was made by a robot.

Financially, GoodBytz has demonstrated significant traction, securing €4 million in a 2022 seed round just months after developing its first prototype in November 2021. This was followed by a substantial Series A funding round of €12 million in October 2023, led by Oyster Bay and Block Food AG, bringing its total funding to over $15 million. The company has outlined ambitious growth plans, aiming to produce over 100 robotic assistants by 2025 and expand internationally beyond Europe.

Keywords: robotic kitchen, food automation, foodservice robotics, catering technology, ghost kitchens, robotics-as-a-service, RaaS, automated cooking, foodtech, professional kitchen solutions, culinary robotics, meal preparation automation, restaurant technology, hospitality automation, food production systems, modular kitchen, digital kitchen, smart kitchen, institutional catering, Hendrik Susemihl, Kevin Deutmarg, Philipp von Stürmer