Singapore's Zimplistic gets $30m Series C round

The company, which claims to apply artificial intelligence, robotics, and internet connectivity to kitchen appliances, will use the capital for R&D. This work will coincide with a marketing expansion into Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada, and the Middle East.

“We will work closely all stakeholders to nurture this innovative homegrown company in its development of kitchen automation robots with machine intelligence and IoT [internet-of-things] capabilities," Swee Yeok Chu, CEO and president of EDBI, said in statement.

Zimplistic’s flagship product is a flatbread maker called Rotimatic, which is said to be used by more than 30,000 customers. The company estimates that the global kitchen appliances market will surpass $250 billion by 2020 and that 25% of the global population eats flatbreads.

The company, which was founded in 2008, has recently reported revenue of $20 million for its first year of sales. It raised an $11.5 million Series B round in 2015 from NSI Ventures and Robert Bosch Venture Capital. An early-stage round in 2010 reportedly included US investor The Distinguished Gentlemen Group.

Smart domestic-use hardware is attracting increased VC investment in the form of both specialized appliances and multi-tool platform devices. Recent activity includes a Series C said to be worth $100 million for Chinese housekeeping assistant developer Rokid and an approximately $57 million investment in Japanese home robot maker Groove X.

Last year, KKR co-founders Henry Kravis and George Roberts joined a group of investors including Chinese conglomerate Fosun International in a $23 million round for Seven Dreamers Laboratories, the Japan-based manufacturer of a smart clothes-folding machine called Laundroid.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Consumer
• Technology
• Expansion
• Singapore
• EDBI
• Venture
• manufacturing