200 cups of gourmet coffee an hour? No problem for this robot barista

Singapore

AN office worker might want to swig a strong, dark espresso on their way to work, and a shopper might want to pick up a caramel slushie for a mid-day pick-me-up as they stroll in a mall.

With the ability to make over 300 drink combinations, robot barista ELLA could make all of this possible.

With a footprint of just 5 sq m, ELLA can make as many as 200 cups of gourmet coffee an hour. Orders can be made through a touchscreen or pre-ordered through its app for a contactless experience.

ELLA's creator Keith Tan, the chief executive officer and founder of food and beverage business Crown Coffee and tech company Crown Digital, envisions her making quality coffee accessible to anyone, anytime.

The barista, who gets her "easy to remember, easy to pronounce", "global" and "fun" name from singer Rihanna's hit song Umbrella, can be found at Plaza Singapura, in offices and at events around the world.

Now, she is ready to reach her 6-axis robotic arm even further.

In early December, ELLA will be launching in Tokyo and Yokohama Stations operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East), which serves 17 million passengers a day.

Following a joint venture with the transport provider, Crown Digital targets to bring ELLA to at least 600 locations across Japan in the next 3 years.

In Singapore, plans are underway to place ELLA in 30 MRT stations islandwide, in collaboration with Stellar Lifestyle by SMRT.

At one station, Crown Coffee will also be premiering a contactless dining concept, where customers can order sandwiches through an app and collect them through pigeonholes.

Working with CapitaLand, Crown Digital expects ELLA to find a home in more malls in the next 2 years. "The road is already paved," Tan said.

Automation is in Crown Coffee's DNA. Before it was incorporated in 2015, Tan considered how to combat the industry's pervasive labour shortage.

His first step was to find a coffee machine that could replicate barista-made coffee.

This brought him to meet with Swiss coffee machine manufacturer Eversys, which uses telemetry technology, and combined that with Buscaglione coffee sourced from Italy - which Tan encountered in a crowded coffee shop - and endless testing.

At its original CT Hub 2 location, Crown Coffee drew customers from neighbouring tech companies, facilitating relationships and - later - partnerships.

An encounter with collaborative robot Baxter at DHL Innovation Centre, Internet of Things workshops conducted in the coffee shop, and an understaffed shop on a rainy day spurred Tan to take the next step and develop a solution that would eliminate people from the coffee-making process entirely.

Acquiring resources

After acquiring resources with the help of Intel's ecosystem of independent software vendors, a S$35,000 robotic arm was developed and integrated into its coffee machine, creating the first iteration of ELLA.

Leased by Alibaba, it debuted at a ConnecTech Asia event hosted at Marina Bay Sands.

Crown Digital was created to focus on the technology side of the business and has since acquired a team of developers, its first angel investor - who injected S$1.5 million into the startup - and other investments from JR East, SMRT's corporate venture arm, various Japanese venture capitalists and European family offices.

ELLA now exists in different models to fit unique design and space needs. She has also been modularised for customisation of functions and ingredients such as weighing ice and dispensing soft serve.

Tan's brainchild has made its rounds across the globe, attending more than 40 events in Australia, New York, Dubai and Hong Kong.

Through its partnership with Etisalat, a telecommunications company in the Middle East, there have been multiple orders from Saudi Arabia. Tan added that there are also plans to set up a regional office in Abu Dhabi.

"I think once we grow, we will be looking at global markets. We need to go step by step, and Japan is the first step," said Tan.

"ELLA is high throughput, and the best location for her to deploy is in train stations," he said, adding that the on-the-go coffee would enhance the commuter experience.

Tan believes that ELLA in Japan and Singapore's train stations can be replicated in other countries.

"This would set us into a very, very strong value proposition for all the other railway networks around the world," he said.

While the full-stack startup is not yet profitable as a company, it is seeing profits per unit of its robotic barista.

"We were a cafe operator to start with, and we disrupted our own business by rethinking how to do things better using technology to ensure the best customer experience," Tan said.

"We need to continue to innovate, continue to disrupt ourselves, rethink how things can be done to better solve problems, and that's how the company will be long-standing and resilient."