ANIAI
About
About ANIAI
ANIAI develops robotic cooking equipment for quick-service restaurants. Alpha Grill uses a dual-sided clamshell mechanism to cook hamburger patties on both surfaces, monitor the process and transfer finished items to a warming area, reducing repetitive grill work during high-volume service.
Computer vision and control software track cooking quality and support consistent output across shifts. The system is designed to fit into existing kitchen workflows, with staff loading product and assembling orders around the automated station. ANIAI supplies commercial restaurant deployments with installation, training and operational support and is developing additional automation around the broader burger-production line.
Products
- Alpha Grill
Alpha Grills
Deployments
- Operating use
2024-08-06 - Aniai deployed 15 Alpha Grill hamburger-cooking robots across South Korean burger chains including Lotteria. - Alpha Grill South Korea restaurant deployments
Source
Funding
- 2026-01-15 - Pre-Series A - $4M - ANIAI raises $4M to expand AI-powered kitchen robotics systems
source: prnewswire.com
- 2024-01-23 - Pre-Series A - $12M - Aniai raises USD 12M pre-Series A for burger-cooking robots
Aniai raised USD 12 million in pre-Series A funding for its Alpha Grill burger-cooking robot. - source: techcrunch.com
Investors
- Capstone Partners - Participant - VC - 2 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2024-01-23 - latest 2026-01-15
- Ignite Innovation - Participant - Angel / Individual - 2 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2024-01-23 - latest 2026-01-15
- InterVest - Lead - Unknown - 2 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2024-01-23 - latest 2026-01-15
- SV Investment - Participant - Angel / Individual - 2 funding events - repeat backer - first seen 2024-01-23 - latest 2026-01-15
- Korea Development Bank - Lead - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2026-01-15
- Lotte Ventures - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2026-01-15
Team
- Gunpil Hwang - CEO and Co-Founder
- Minsu Ji - CTO and Co-Founder
Timeline
Events
- 2026-01-15 - Funding - ANIAI raises $4M to expand AI-powered kitchen robotics systems
Scales deployment of robotic cooking systems in commercial kitchens Advances computer vision and automation for food preparation workflows Targets expansion in quick-service restaurant operations
Source - 2024-08-06 - Deployment - Aniai deploys 15 Alpha Grill robots across South Korean burger chains
Aniai deployed 15 Alpha Grill hamburger-cooking robots across South Korean burger chains including Lotteria. The deployment placed Alpha Grill systems into multiple South Korean restaurant kitchens. Lotteria, part of Lotte GRS, was named among the participating chains.
Source - 2024-03-01 - Deployment - ANIAI deploys robotic kitchen system for automated food preparation
Introduces system for automated frying and cooking workflows Integrates robotics with vision-based food monitoring Targets high-volume quick-service restaurant environments
Source - 2024-01-23 - Funding - Aniai raises USD 12M pre-Series A for burger-cooking robots
InterVest led the round, bringing Aniai total funding to USD 15 million. The capital supported Factory One manufacturing in South Korea and Alpha Cloud software for the cooking robot. The capital supports industrial automation, construction or production workflows as Aniai moves toward broader commercial use.
Source
Relations
Relationships
- Lotteria / Lotte GRS
Restaurant Deployment Customer - Aniai deployed Alpha Grill robots across South Korean burger chains including Lotteria.
Context
Context tags
- Commercial kitchen robotics - Peer Group
- Automated burger cooking - Workflow
- Robotic kitchen OEM - Stack Layer
- Commercial kitchens - Customer Environment