Rotimatic maker doughs out losses, burns through its cash reserves

Singapore

LOCAL startup Zimplistic made headlines in 2016 with its invention Rotimatic, an automated kitchen appliance that makes Indian flatbread or roti.

By the time the machine was shipped out to its first batch of customers that year, it had already spent the eight preceding years in development. But a decade after the company's founding, the buzz in 2016 has turned into a pressing question of how long it will be before the business can become sustainable.

Zimplistic suffered losses of US$23.6 million last year, despite revenue of US$21.2 million, going by regulatory filings obtained by The Business Times.

Revenue from the sale of its US$999 roti-making machine was mostly flat - an oddity for consumer products in their initial years of user adoption and mar…