
Chef Robotics automates food manufacturing to help food companies increase production and address labor shortages. It does this by deploying AI-enabled robotic systems delivered as…

Chef Robotics automates food manufacturing to help food companies increase production and address labor shortages. It does this by deploying AI-enabled robotic systems delivered as…
What they do: AI-enabled robotic systems (robot arms + software) to automate high-mix food preparation and meal assembly
Business model: Robotics-as-a-Service / OpEx deployments aimed at food manufacturers and commercial kitchens
Founded / HQ: Founded 2019; San Francisco, California
Funding (reported): Reported total capital ~ $65.6M–$65.6M USD (company disclosure lists $43.1M round plus prior raises; Dealroom/aggregates report ~$65.6M)
Uses machine learning (deep neural networks, transformers) and computer vision; ChefOS platform
Automation of high-mix food manufacturing and commercial kitchen meal assembly; reducing labor dependency and improving throughput/consistency.
2019
Software Development
7700000
Reported 2021 financing of $7.7M (seed / pre-seed aggregated reporting)
14750000
Closed a $14.75M combination equity/debt round
43100000
Reported $43.1M financing composed of ~$20.6M equity and ~$22.5M equipment financing debt (company disclosure)
“Syndicate includes multiple institutional VCs and strategic investors (e.g., Kleiner Perkins, Promus Ventures, Construct Capital, Bloomberg Beta, BOLD Capital Partners, Alumni Ventures, Siddhi Capital, HCVC, and others) as reported across disclosures.”
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Chef Robotics is on a mission to accelerate the advent of intelligent machines in the physical world, starting with food. We build AI-powered robots that assemble fresh meals at scale for some of the largest food producers in North America — companies making ready-to-eat meals for airlines, retailers, meal kits, and the frozen food aisle.
Our robots operate in high-mix, high-variability production environments where ingredients change shape, color, and consistency from one tray to the next. Solving this requires tightly coupled perception, manipulation, and learning — and a team that ships hardware-software systems into customer facilities and keeps them running.
Headquartered in San Francisco, we are a venture-backed team of robotics, ML, and operations engineers building the foundation for general-purpose food robotics.
About The Role Chef Robotics is building autonomous robots that work alongside humans in commercial food preparation environments — and perception is at the heart of what makes them reliable. As a Perception Engineer, you will own the full stack of how our robots see and understand the world: from integrating cutting-edge camera hardware, to training production-grade deep learning models, to ensuring those models perform accurately and efficiently in real-time on the factory floor.
You will work on some of the most technically rich problems in applied robotics — dense instance segmentation of deformable food items, real-time inference under tight latency constraints, sensor fusion, and robust tracking in cluttered, dynamic environments. You will not just train models; you will design the pipelines that gather and curate data, define the architectures that balance accuracy and speed, and own the deployment and field troubleshooting of what you build.
We are a small, high-ownership team. We work onsite five days a week and move with startup urgency — you will be expected to go deep technically while staying pragmatic about what ships.
In this role, you will:
What You Bring:
Nice-to-have:
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
Chef is an early-stage startup where equity is a major part of the compensation package. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position. Within the range, individual pay is determined by additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.
In addition to salary and early-stage equity, we offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, and vision insurance, commuter benefits, flexible paid time off (PTO), catered lunch, and 401(k) matching.
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