Spyce Kitchen

MIT mechanical engineering graduates[2] Michael Farid, Brady Knight, Luke Schlueter and Kale Rogers[3] developed the kitchen using seven autonomous work stations to prepare bowl-based meals using healthy ingredients such as kale, beans and grains.[4] The four graduates wanted to make healthy meals more affordable,[5] so they built the robotic technology[6] and initially served the food to students at an MIT dining hall.[7] The group received the $10,000 “Eat It” Lemelson-MIT undergraduate prize in 2016[8] as one of America's top two collegiate inventors in food technology.[9]

The four then teamed up with chef Daniel Boulud to create the new menu for their restaurant.[10][11] Prices start at $7.50 for an entire meal in a bowl[12] at their first real branch, which opened on May 3, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts.[13] Referred to as the "Spyce Boys",[14] the four founders were inspired by their experiences as hungry student athletes on tight budgets. Spyce Kitchen automated cooking units also clean up after cooking and dirtying the cooking apparatus.[15]

Spyce raised $21 million in series A funding in September 2018, lead by venture capital firms Maveron, Collaborative Fund, and Khosla Ventures.[16]