A new Seattle-area startup is betting that robotic arms can help restaurants and construction sites improve efficiency and address labor shortages.
Founded earlier this year, Ally Robotics is developing a hardware and no-code software product meant to simulate physical tasks traditionally done by humans — grabbing cups, frying french fries, sanding wood, etc.
The company has already signed a $30 million letter-of-intent with Miso Robotics, the Los Angeles-area restaurant automation company behind Flippy, and has $400,000 of robotics-as-a-service contracts in place with a bubble tea company and a manufacturing equipment provider.
It has also raised $10 million from a bevy of backers including Miso, private investors, and via crowdfunding sites.
The 14-person company is led by CEO and co-founder Mitch Tolson, who previously ran an engineering services team at Microsoft and also spent time at PACCAR. He co-founded Ally with Jennifer Wichman Christensen, a former industrial engineering manager at UPS.
“The Ally arm is the smartest, most affordable, easy-to-service, and simple-to-train robotic arm,” Tolson said at the recent TechCrunch Disrupt conference where Ally pitched its product.
Other startups are developing similar robotic arms, including Seattle-based Artly, which makes robotic baristas and just landed $8.3 million. Picnic is another Seattle startup bringing automation to the food industry with its robotic pizza maker and recently inked a deal with Dominos.
