🍕 Issue #113: Rockets, Robots, and Pizza
Claremont entrepreneur and ex-SpaceX engineer Benson Tsai's robo-pizza company, Stellar Pizza, and their recent acquisition. And other Claremont mergers and massive raises.
💬 Welcome to issue #113 of Between the Lines
Good morning & happy Thursday. Automation is everywhere, from subtle features in common software applications to more obvious implementations like self-driving cars…. and even PIZZA.
This week, we share more on serial Claremont entrepreneur Benson Tsai and his robo-pizza startup, which was acquired, as well as other Claremont mergers and additional financings that happened. It’s a Claremont world out there. 👇
~ Josh, Miles, Pat
👤 Community Spotlight: Benson Tsai & Stellar Pizza
Claremont graduate and serial tech entrepreneur Benson Tsai (HMC ‘06) is the co-founder and CEO of Stellar Pizza, a robotic-powered mobile pizza-making restaurant. Stellar’s robotic pizza vehicle can cook a touch-free pizza from start to finish in less than five minutes and manage multiple orders simultaneously. The pizza-making robots are the result of three years of research by Benson and his team. Their pizza-making robots have also attracted investments exceeding $25M, with notable figures like Jay-Z participating in the funding.
Benson was also a previous co-founder of Motiv Power Systems, a sustainable technology company that delivers proven electric trucks, bus chassis, and related charging infrastructure. In 2008, he founded the company with fellow Claremont grad Jim Costelaz (HMC ‘06) with the vision to develop and deploy an Electric-Powered Intelligent Chassis that provides an economical and low-risk pathway for truck and bus fleets to use electric vehicles.
After Motiv, Benson joined SpaceX as a Senior Battery Engineer responsible for developing rocket and satellite battery systems before starting Serve Automation (AKA Stellar Pizza). Hanwha Foodtech recently acquired Stellar Pizza, retaining key technicians and management executives, including Tsai.
Hanwha Foodtech acquires robot-powered Stellar Pizza
Hanwha Foodtech has acquired the US-based robot pizza brand, Stellar Pizza, as part of its efforts to drive technological innovation in the food service industry.
In January, Hanwha Foodtech signed a memorandum of understanding with Serve Automation, the parent company of Stellar Pizza, for a transfer of assets. Contractual documents for the acquisition were finalized Thursday.
The acquisition was facilitated by Hanwha Foodtech Global, the US subsidiary of Hanwha Foodtech, the company said Monday.
Hanwha Foodtech said it plans to commence its pizza business operations after optimizing the work process of the pizza robots.
“Hanwha Foodtech will introduce a new pizza brand to both the Korean and US markets following the adaptation of Stellar Pizza's technology and systems,” an official from Hanwha said.
Check out the article below to learn more about Stellar Pizza and its acquisition. 👇
🚨Claremonster Call-Out: Julia Stiglitz
Claremont entrepreneur Julia Stiglitz (PO) is the co-founder and CEO of Uplimit, an AI-driven EdTech platform that works with organizations looking to arm their tech and data teams with the latest skills and best practices. Before starting her own company, Julia was the VP of Enterprise for Coursera, where she founded and led Coursera's global enterprise business, empowering organizations and governments to up-skill and grow their employees and citizens through in-demand skills. She was also a partner at GSV Ventures, investing in education and the future of work.
In 2021, Julia founded Uplimit to offer interactive, cohort-based AI upskilling programs at scale. Despite being founded only two years ago, Uplimit has experienced strong growth, welcoming Fortune 500 companies as clients. Business Insider recently included Julia in their Top 10 List of Extraordinary Women Leaders to Watch in 2024.
The company’s impressive growth is even more remarkable given that it has faced challenging, bearish markets since its inception — conditions that Julia believes have worked in its favor. In markets like these, companies are only willing to invest in critical needs, and so they were forced to focus and provide only ‘must-have’ offerings.
This leads to Julia’s leadership ethos: ‘Challenges are the way’. She sees every challenge as an opportunity, to keep moving forward, try new things, keep learning, and gather as much data as one can from customers.
- Business Insider
Check out the full list of extraordinary women leaders from Business Insider. 👇
📣 Claremont Announcements: VC Talks - Fundraising for Green Startups
Join ClimateLaunchpad and Cleantech Open tonight for an evening of networking, food, and drinks with VCs, founders, and specialists in the climate space at the Morrison & Foerster office in Downtown Los Angeles!
Date: Today, Thursday, March 14, 2024
Time: 6pm-9pm PDT
Address: Morrison & Foerster, 707 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 6000, Los Angeles, 90017
Organiser URLs: cleanleap.org (who runs climatelaunchpad US) and cleantechopen.org
Sponsor: Morrison & Foerster
ClimateLaunchpad - runs the largest green startup pitch competition at ideation stage worldwide. Since 2014, ClimateLaunchpad has helped incubate +5,000 green startups in +70 countries, raising +$500M after the program. ClimateLaunchpad is powered by CleanLeap in the US.
Cleantech Open - is the largest cleantech startup accelerator in the U.S. Since 2005, more than 70% of Cleantech Open's reporting U.S. alumni companies are still active and have collectively raised over $2B in external funding.
For entrepreneurs in the climate/clean tech space, registration has also opened for the ClimateLaunchpad (pitch competition) and Cleantech Open programs (business accelerator). Check out their sites for more details, and register for tonight’s event below. 👇
💼 Who’s Hiring?: Tandem & KAV
Tandem is on a mission to bring human connection back to work by making the hybrid office a reality. Founded in early 2023, they are a venture-backed startup spun out of Stanford that matches like-minded companies to share office space. Tandem facilitates co-tenancy agreements by getting data on a company's preferred in-office schedule, employee preferences, and productivity goals. It pairs companies that have a compatible hybrid schedule and facilitates an introduction. Claremont grad Brendan Suh (CMC ‘19) is the co-founder and Head of Product & Marketing for Tandem. They are currently looking for a Founding Engineer to join their team. Check out the opening below for more details.
KAV Sports offers custom helmets with a tailored fit, enhanced protection, and a sleek design. Their unique approach combines cutting-edge 3D printing technology with bespoke design, offering unparalleled protection and comfort tailored to each individual's contours. Last year, startup accelerator and incubator 43North selected KAV as one of the five $1M winners who will be making their way to Buffalo to grow under the guidance of 43North, helping to create jobs and making investments in the region. Claremont entrepreneur Whitman Kwok (HMC ‘97) is the founder and CEO of KAV, and he’s looking for a Social Media and Content Manager to join their team.
Check out the other ~5,000 open jobs at 400+ Claremont-affiliated companies here on our Storyboard. Plus, create a profile and enter your preferences to get alerted to new job postings relevant to you, be they the 1,000+ remote jobs, 100+ internships, or 40+ part-time positions available. We’ve published research that shows that Claremont-founded companies that disproportionately hire Claremont talent outperform — so pay attention, Claremonsters!
If any of these roles catch your eye 👀 , apply and mention Between the Lines. Or, if you are an employer looking to hire tip-top Claremont talent, fill out this form to have your jobs featured.
👨🎓👩🎓 Claremont Introductions: Anthony Zhang
Anthony Zhang graduated from Pomona with a sociology degree and, remaining true to the spirit of his liberal arts education, took a roundabout route into tech. After a couple of years of consulting projects at FSG, a social impact consulting firm, Anthony became interested in tech as a vehicle for social change and decided to learn to code. This led to his current role at ONEBIT, where he works as a full-stack engineer building bookkeeping tools for small business owners.
Anthony is currently looking for his next engineering role. He’s interested in entry-level engineering roles across industries but is particularly excited about smaller engineering teams working on mission-driven projects. Anthony is based in New York City at the moment but is open to roles anywhere. You can find his personal site and portfolio at anthonyzhang.info.
If you, your company, or anybody else you might know is interested, email Anthony here! 📧
🗣️ Conversations on the Interwebz:
This week’s Claremont financings 💸
Alumis recently raised a $259M Series C round co-led by Foresite Capital, Samsara BioCapital, and venBio Partners. Claremont founder June Lee (PO) was the previous President and CEO of Alumis – a California-based biotech startup with the mission to significantly improve the lives of patients living with immune-mediated diseases by replacing broad immunosuppression with targeted therapies.
Congratulations to Claremont alum Shreyas Kumar (HMC ‘14) and FERMAT on their recent $17M Series A led by Bain Capital. FERMAT is changing how brands do business through its content-native shopping platform, allowing brands to drive strong conversions and customer acquisition. Over the last year since entering the market, the company has served over a hundred high-growth brands, including True Classic, Jack Archer, MindBodyGreen, U Beauty, and Nood. Shreyas is the company's co-founder and CTO.
Everything else you need to know💡
Hungry House, a fast-casual restaurant platform founded by Claremont grad Solamon Cruz Estin (PI ‘10), is merging with MegaBite, a multi-brand platform that brings curated cuisine to market through its own app. The two companies will create an international entity called BiteLabs with 13 locations in the USA, Mexico, and Peru. With a combined annual revenue of over $6M, they plan to double down on continued growth in in-store retail, first-party delivery, and third-party delivery partnerships with UberEATS, GrubHub, DoorDash, and Rappi in Latin America.
Claremont grad Lily Clifford (PI ‘14) recently announced the launch of Mist, Rime Labs’ next-gen TTS trained on a massive conversational speech dataset. Mist has realistic conversational elements like filled pauses and non-verbal confirmations, which make it a powerful building block for call automation. Lily is the founder and CEO of Rime Labs, a startup that develops the highest-quality enterprise-level speech tools for nimble integration with every customer need.
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