Otto Robotics, a stealthy startup that’s working on automated systems to make and deliver food, has raised $1.5 million in a private equity offering.
That report comes in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that was made by the nascent company, headquartered in Redmond, Wash.
Otto Robotics’ co-founder and chief, Garett Ochs, told GeekWire that the lead investors for the seed round are Draper Associates and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital.
Ochs’ venture shouldn’t be confused with an Otto of a different color: Otto without the “Robotics” is a venture that’s working on self-driving trucks and was recently acquired by Uber. In contrast, Otto Robotics is working on robotic food preparation.
To be specific, the company says it makes low-cost modular robotic solutions for the restaurant industry – semi-autonomous systems that are designed to assemble, cook and deliver food “with no human intervention.”
Ochs said the venture is still fleshing out the engineering team. “We’re looking for mechanical and electrical engineers, and mechatronic engineers,” he said.
He declined to provide further details about the company’s business model. However, a designer’s online portfolio describes a project that involved creating and testing a smartphone app for ordering pizza from an automated mobile food truck operated by Otto Robotics.
Ochs has a distinguished startup pedigree: While he was a student at the University of Washington, Ochs helped raise more than $500,000 for UW Formula Motorsports. He went on to become a mechanical engineer at Planetary Resources, and then at Oculus VR. Ochs left Oculus last June to found Otto Robotics.
Otto Robotics’ chief technology officer and co-founder, Colton Anderson, also has a background in mechanical engineering with experience at Oculus, Planetary Resources and UW, as well as at Mizuho OSI.
