Cafe X, a robotic coffee startup, has sealed down a 3 San Francisco brick-and-mortar locations and laid off staff, per Axios. The startup, founded in 2015, has lifted about $14.5 million to date, according to Crunchbase data.
Cafe X did not immediately respond to a ask for comment.
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The news comes months after we reported that a Austin-based competitor, Briggo, changed to town. Briggo, that offers java done by robots, set adult emporium in San Francisco’s airport.
Briggo CEO and co-founder Kevin Nater afterwards told me that “We prosaic out have longer knowledge and some-more rendezvous with business in a Bay than Cafe X. Their purchasing knowledge is flattering most a counterpart of what we were doing already.” The key, Nater said, is formulating a drudge coffee knowledge that is some-more industrial food driven than knowledge driven.
When we final chatted with Henry Hu, a CEO and owner of Cafe X, he told me a association is expanding to airports as well, a pierce that will ideally supplement general bearing and 24/7 service. Per Axios, along with a closures, Cafe X claims it has commissioned machines in San Jose and San Francisco airports.
After witnessing lessons from a section and trebuchet locations, Hu wanted a destiny of Cafe X to be reduction robot, some-more old-school coffee. He also pronounced that a association transitioned from outsourcing hardware engineering talent to bringing it inhouse for a 38-person staff.
“It’s not only going to be like a waste robotic coffee bar sitting there opposite a wall,” Hu spoke on a destiny of Cafe X, behind in September.
And per today’s news, it looks Hu has delivered on that promise, shuttering a “lonely” locations.
Illustration: Li-Anne Dias
