SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today Hyphen, formerly known as Ono Food Co. announced its plan to transform the foodservice industry across the country with the launch of its new platform. The platform consists of an Automated Makeline and companion OS that fulfills digital orders (pick-up, delivery, drive-thru, QR code), manages inventory, and eliminates order issues such as missing ingredients and cross-contamination.
The Makeline can produce 350 meals per hour and requires just one staff member. Hyphen was built by some of the world’s top talent in robotics, foodservice, and food-tech from companies like Apple, Sweetgreen, SpaceX, Tesla, Uber, Instacart, Postmates, and more. Hyphen’s Makelines will deploy across the country this winter.
The first incarnation of Hyphen was a company called Ono Food Co., a robotic food truck with a mission to make healthy and delicious food as affordable and as ubiquitous as fast food. Within months of Ono’s launch, the COVID-19 pandemic forced shelter-in-place, and co-founder and CEO Stephen Klein decided to halt operations, take a step back, and think about what a post-COVID world meant for the restaurant industry. Within months, they decided to pivot the business to focus on an enterprise solution.
“When we took a step back, we realized that we had built a very effective way to automate food production and run a very efficient and profitable business,” said Klein. “We had demonstrated the value, but we had a unique opportunity to accelerate our mission by enabling restaurants to make their kitchen operations more profitable and efficient. Now we really see ourselves like Shopify, but instead of enabling merchants to compete with the likes of Amazon, we’re enabling restaurants to compete with the likes of DoorDash as well as other services and ghost kitchens that have decided to compete with their own customers by offering their own food brands.”
Hyphen’s Makelines will deploy in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Phoenix over the coming months with their first set of customers—mostly restaurant brands with over 300 locations in total.
About Hyphen
Hyphen uses software and robotics to increase profitability and efficiency in foodservice by putting kitchen operations on autopilot. Hyphen’s robotic makeline produces over 350 meals an hour with zero order defects or cross-contamination, and can easily be swapped with a restaurant’s existing makeline without the need for plumbing or drainage. Through its KitchenOS, the platform enables restaurants to create recipes, fulfill multiple orders from third-party delivery services, and help with other kitchen-specific tasks like telling line cooks what food to prep next. Customers include some of the world’s most innovative restaurant chains, food brands, and co-packers.
