Qualgro makes its first foray into Europe with an investment in French robotic food tech company Pazzi

Singapore-based investment fund Qualgro has entered Europe via a US$11,2 million Series A funding in Pazzi, a France-based robotic food tech startup. Joining the investment round are French fund Eutopia, Partech and daphni, as well as American and Swiss entrepreneurs from the retail and food sector.

The funding will be used to accelerate the development of Pazzi’s technology by strengthening its R&D teams and industrial partnerships for the manufacture of the next robots.

Pazzi will also use part of the new capital to open the first fully autonomous pilot restaurant with robots cooking in the Paris region in September at the Val d’Europe shopping centre (owned by the Klépierre group), one of the leading shopping centres in France.

Pazzi is a new player in the emerging robotic food tech sector, following the success of Zume or Spyce, the American companies in the sector which fundraised in 2018. Pazzi is said to be the pioneer in the sector in Europe.

According to a report by Meticulous Research, food robotics market is set to hit US$3.1 billion by 2025.

Pazzi was founded by two young French inventors, Sébastien Roverso and Cyrill Hamon, both engineers who are passionate about robotics and electronics. Together, they met with Philippe Goldman, a former director L’Oréal and now CEO of Pazzi. The company’s R&D efforts resulted in five patents obtained.

Pazzi now has a 15-person team. The company has been working with chef Thierry Graffagnino, a three-time world champion of pizza-making, since 2017. Graffagnino creates the dough and recipes for pizzas and helps the engineers teach robots to replicate how pizzaiolo (pizza makers) move. The end goal is to make the pizza-making process look more authentic and unique.

Also Read: Alpha JWC Ventures welcomes NS Solutions to its second fund

Pazzi founders’ mission is to fight junk food and to “use their skills to change the way fast food chains operate by increasing speed and freshness and operates with much more efficiency”.

Combining robots, vision, and data learning, Pazzi has been able to implement high-quality sourcing and recipes thanks to Graffagnino. The ingredients are based on organic vegetables from Italy, clean label hams, French PDO cheeses, sustainable fish, and flour from Ile-de-France mills, with a combination of over five million recipes.

The platform also opens the possibility for 24/7 open catering and is able to make 100 pizzas per hour; allowing Pazzi to be an optimal turnkey restaurant solution for operators of flow areas: stations, airports, main streets, shopping centres, department stores or campuses.

“Pazzi means ‘crazy’ in Italian. It is in the image of our team and the crazy bet invested in research for 6 years, concretised in particular by five patents. Pazzi’s mission is to put technology and robotics at the service of taste and healthier food,” said Philippe Goldman, CEO de PAZZI.

“The autonomous restaurant concept offered by Pazzi is meeting a growing demand from consumers across the world for fast, qualitative, and affordable food options. Its user-friendly digital tools and exciting robotics add to the overall great consumer experience,” said Heang Chhor, founder of Qualgro VC.
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Photo by Willian West on Unsplash

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Sifting through our e27 archives? If you’re looking for a good read, here are a few suggestions

Throughout the history of e27, contributors have always found themselves at the heart of what e27 brings to the tech community of Asia-Pacific and beyond.

We believe in preserving a healthy marketplace of ideas where thought leaders and entrepreneurs can exchange insights regarding the tech ecosystem. Because of this, we’ve decided to curate this special section featuring some of our best contributed articles from the past few months.

Without further ado, here’s our pick for the 10 contributor articles you should check out!

1.) 5 ways Augmented Reality is redefining the gaming industry by Nitin Garg

In this write up by BR Softech CEO and co-founder, Nitin Garg, he chronicles how augmented reality is creating immersive experiences that allow users to feel that they can interact personally with their digital environment.

2.) What I learned about procrastination while scaling my startup to 4.2M users by Aytekin Tank

JotForm founder and CEO Aytekin Tank writes, “Once I reconnect with my goals and remind myself of the potential outcomes, I’m back on track. Obviously, there is no ‘right way’ to deal with procrastination” as he talks about a problem that can be detrimental to your business, yet is often left undiscussed.

3.) Hidden reasons why VCs reject your startup for investment by Christopher Quek

In this think-piece that talks about the decision-making calculus of VCs, TRIVE managing partner Christopher Quek likens acquiring funding from VCs to getting rejected on Tinder: sometimes it’s not you, it’s them.

4.) 8 productivity hacks to streamline your work-life by Bjorn Lee

Here’s an article by MindFi.co founder Bjorn Lee that discusses the different ways one can slither through the busy life of being a young professional, highlighting the demarcation between what it’s like to be ‘busy’ and what it’s like to be actually productive.

5.) How listening to our 4.1 million users inspired a new product idea by Aytekin Tank

An article contributed by JotForm CEO and founder Aytekin Tank where he delineates “the product” versus the feelings we ascribe to that product (or in simpler terms, how that product makes us feel) as he attempts to interrogate the purchasing habits of the everyday consumer.

6.) What I learned from reading 50 books in a year by Edric Subut

“I certainly will carry the momentum and leverage my expanded inner confidence from this challenge to stretch myself further. I don’t know where exactly life will take me or what my next challenge will be. But one thing is certain, I will never stop growing,” writes Google App Growth Manager for Southeast Asia, Edric Subut, as he talks about channeling inner growth gained from expanding knowledge as a means to harness outward growth.

7.) Hire slowly, grow slowly: how we grew from 1 to 100 employees by Aytekin Tank

Once again, JotForm CEO and founder Aytekin Tank dazzles us with his insights. Here, he talks about how patience is indeed a virtue when growing your employment pool, and how it took him and his growing team 12 years to bring JotForm to where it is today.

8.) Fantastic tech co-founders and where to find them by Jackie Tan Yen

Here, self-proclaimed blockchain enthusiast and current PhD candidate at NTU, Singapore, Jackie Tan Yen uses a quirky Harry Potter reference to shed light on the critical act of finding the right partner to get your company off the ground.

9.) There’s hope for markets in 2019 despite 2018’s crypto winter, here’s why by Kenny Au

To all crypto enthusiasts out there and the like, here’s an article by LUXSENS co-founder Kenny Au detailing why the market isn’t an entirely bleak space to explore in 2019 in spite of crypto’s performance in the year prior — 2018.

10.) 7 traits of successful startups by Jamie Cheng

Is there really a common thread that binds successful startups together? Find out in this adeptly written article by Digital Alpha Agency co-founder Jamie Cheng, where she discusses common traits observed among successful startup founders.

Also read: e27 is a platform for exchanging ideas, here is a quick guide to contribute an article for the community

Submissions

Want to read more? You’re in luck since e27 houses tons of articles containing meaningful insights revolving the tech ecosystem and beyond.

If you’re interested to be part of e27’s growing pool of contributors, sign up for an e27 account today and submit your articles here. All contributions will be reviewed by our editors.

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Prosa.ai focusses on Natural Language Processing and Speech in Indonesian language

Indonesia-based Prosa.ai, an AI-powered startup that provides Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Speech in the country’s local language, announced that it has received a Series A investment from GDP Venture.

Prosa.ai was built in 2018 as a result of the research conducted by its co-founders: Dr. Ayu Purwarianti and Dessi Puji Lestari, PhD, who are both locally-known experts in NLP and Speech alongside Teguh Eko Budiarto, an IT entrepreneur veteran.

Now the company has over 20 Data Scientists, 16 Data Annotators for its NLP Speech products, data, and services that are sourced from IT sectors, government, and academics.

“Indonesia has seen emerging startups with potentials in AI industry and Prosa.ai’s technology is one that we actually need to support other industries,” said Martin Hartono, CEO of GDP Venture, commenting on the strategic investment.

Also Read: Singapore’s Qualgro lands in Europe with a US$11.2M Series A in Pazzi

GDP Venture also participated in Prosa.ai’s seed funding round.

Teguh Eko Budiarto, CEO of Prosa.ai said that the company plans to use the funding to improve its products and data, especially their Prosa Hoax Intel, NLP Toolkit API, Concept-Sentiment, Chatbot NLP Processing, Text Data Sets, Voice Biometrics, Speech Datasets, Speech-to-Text, Text-to-Speech, Conversational Analytics. and Meeting Analytics for Bahasa Indonesia.

Recently, Prosa.ai collaborates with Indonesia’s Minister of Communication and Informatics to launch Chatbot AntiHoaks (anti-hoax chatbot) in Telegram that can be accessed through [at]chatbotantihoaks account. The chatbot is intended to help to check on the credibility of news, articles, or links shared by the public through chatroom.

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Image Credit: Prosa.ai

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The company says it has no assets to clear its accounts with creditors and users

Ofo can’t pay its debts, but says it is confident of a comeback [KrAsia]

After abandoning its overseas operations, Ofo just refuses to die.

After a Tianjin court ruled that Ofo is unable to repay RMB 250 million (US$36 million) in debt to a bike manufacturer, revealing that the company has “no assets” to clear its accounts with creditors and users, the company told local newspaper Beijing Business Today that it respects the ruling and that it is still going all out to generate revenue and return users’ deposits.

This means that Ofo, which was once valued at north of US$2 billion, has no property or land usage rights, no investments that can be liquidated, and no vehicles. The court added that Ofo’s bank accounts were either already frozen by other courts or didn’t have a positive balance.

MDEC launches comeback career programme for more women to join cybersecurity sector [The Star]

The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) wants more women to become a part of the cybersecurity workforce, by encouraging them to apply for the new Empowering Women in Cyber Risk Management Programme.

MDEC chief executive officer Surina Shukri described the pioneer programme as an important step towards building a highly-valued workforce with critical skills.

“This programme will empower women to develop the skills needed for jobs with high-demand in the era of Industry 4.0,” she said.

Women, Family and Community Development deputy minister Hannah Yeoh at the launch said the programme is “timely”.

AI mental health startup Wysa raises Rs 15 crores in pre-Series A round of funding led by pi Ventures [press release]

Wysa, an AI conversational agent which aims to help improve mental health, announced that it has raised about US$2M in a pre-Series A round of funding led by pi Ventures, with participation from Kae Capital and other investors.

Wysa has raised an earlier round of US$1.3 million in seed funding from Kae Capital and angel investors in 2017.

The company plans to use fresh funding to further strengthen their technology and for expansion.

Founded by Jo Aggarwal and Ramakant Vempati three years ago, Wysa is an AI-based ‘emotionally intelligent’ bot, a virtual coach that combines empathetic listening with evidence-based therapeutic techniques like CBT, meditation and motivational interviewing, to make mental health accessible at scale.

Wysa has helped over 1.2 million people from 30-plus countries.

Oculo and plano partner to protect children’s eyesight [press release]

Oculo and plano have announced a new partnership designed to combat the growing global myopia epidemic.

The plano app provides a suite of child safety functions, while using science-based features to help modify behaviour in children to reduce myopia related risk factors and empower healthier device usage. plano users (families with children aged 2 to 16 years) will have access to the extensive Oculo network to make the process of finding and booking optometry appointments easy.

“plano empowers parents to work with their children to develop healthy screen habits – and this includes regular and timely comprehensive eye check-ups. As part of plano’s inbuilt eye referral system, users will get reminders when their children are due for an optometry review and can seamlessly find an optometrist in the Oculo network for care,” said plano Founder and CEO, Dr Mo Dirani.

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It enables kids to earn KID coins for chores, reaching new learning goals in reading/math, and buy stuff on online stores

Last summer, Kaede Takenaka was having lunch with her mom and her friends in a restaurant. They were talking about adult stuff and mentioned cryptocurrency, blockchain and different projects and how to solve problems. An enthusiastic Takenaka asked them where all these coins came from and if she can have her own coin.

“And I got my own coin,” Takenaka tells e27.  “We created a coin on the NEM blockchain. The very next year, I taught how to do it to Master’s students.”

A Grade IV student at AKIS International School in Bangkok, Takenaka is the Co-founder and CEO of KIDLetCoin, a blockchain platform for kids to learn all about blockchain and fiscal management. She believes kids taking control of their own financial education and learning about disruptive technologies early are the keys to their success.

KIDLetCoin was started by Takenaka as a hobby because she had not much time to invest as she was busy with academics. So she did things in her spare time with the help of mother.

“KIDLetCoin was started as a way to make kids learn about cryptocurrencies by doing chores and getting coins in return. In the beginning it was designed as a system wherein parents could take coins back or not release them if the kids were not doing their chores or for being naughty. But we gave up on that idea later,” continues Takenaka. “In the current form, KidLetCoin enables kids to earn KID coins for chores, or reaching new learning goals in reading/math, etc. Kids can use their KID in an online store to buy stuff.”

The startup’s ultimate goal is to create a global network of kids, who will work together on blockchain projects and educational products.

Despite her achievements at this very young age, Takenaka doesn’t consider herself a prodigy. She says she learned all about crypto and blockchain from her mom, who is working for a blockchain firm. Takenaka goes to all blockchain events along with her mom. Besides, she watches a lot of YouTube videos about this technology.

Also Read: 16-year-old Indian prodigy has developed a drone that can detect and destroy landmines

“I’m just a normal kid. I love to read and always have books around. I also love Minecraft (a sandbox video game) and finding ways to do Minecraft mods and building a Piper laptop kit. This is how I got interested in tech,” he clarifies.

KIDLetCoin also has a few people on the team, but since it was her own brain map and idea, Takenaka took on the role of the CEO. “My mom helped and so did some of her blockchain friends, but they don’t want publicity. As the head of the company, my roles are to go out and tell people about the project, invite kids to help and learn, and try to learn more coding.”

The inspiration to start the project came from the class room. “We use the International Baccalaureate system and this year we did UOI (unit of inquiry) about entrepreneurship. Everyone in class had to make a business,” he shares. “This was started as a passion project.”

Takenaka has a lot of plans with this project but she doesn’t want to talk about just yet. She has however made it clear that the company will not do an ICO, ever. “I will do my best with KIDLetCoin, and hopefully make it successful.”

In her spare time, Kaede likes to read books, watch gaming YouTube videos, write short stories, and play sports. She also dances and plays music. In future, she also wants to be a doctor.

As for funding, initially it was all her mom and her friends who funded everything and still fund things. Takenaka also has a few more private investors helping with the minimum viable product.

What are the major challenges you are facing? “Well, it can be difficult to be taken seriously as a kid. I also get tired of school. But I think its a big opportunity to help kids learn about blockchain, and I want kids to join me and learn too,” she concludes.

Takenaka spoke about blockchain and cryptocurrencies at Techsauce Global Summit, which was concluded on Thursday.

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