The verified answer
As of Sep 2026, DEPLOY verifies Karakuri: 1 model, 2 deployments across 2 regions, $14.4M raised. 5 sources back the record.
CategoryFood service
Overview
Karakuri was a London-based robotics company developing automated food preparation systems. Founded in 2018 by ex-ARM engineers Barney Wragg and Simon Watt, the company built the DK-One robotic canteen — a pre-production meal assembly robot capable of dispensing up to 18 ingredients for personalized meals — along with the FRYR automated fry line and SEMBLR meal assembly system.
Karakuri raised approximately £13.5M ($17.7M) from investors including Ocado , firstminute capital, and Hoxton Ventures, but wound down operations in June 2023 after failing to secure additional funding.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- 2 deployments on file
- Active incidents
- None on file
Valuation of record
Company-claimedPriced roundSeed post-money
Key facts
CEO
Founded
Status
Total fundingsee investors →
Key investor
Data & sources
News coverage
2
Web sources
3
5 sources backing this record.View all →
Models (1)
View all models →Karakuri on the deployment map
View the global map2 verified deployments across 2 regions, newest verified Jun 2024. Explore where Karakuri's robots are operating, by place and type.
View the full Karakuri deployment record →
Relationships
Explainers
Plain-language answers to the questions people ask about Karakuri, from DEPLOY’s explainer library. Each is written in the language of the question and cross-checked against this registry.
What are food service robots and how do they work?
What was Karakuri and why did it go into administration?
Founders (2)
- Barney Wraggcofounderfounded 2018-04-01no longer at company
- Simon Wattcofounderfounded 2018-04-01no longer at company
Former / Previously (2)
- Barney Wragg Co-founder & CEO2018 to 2023SEC-verified
- Simon Watt Co-founder2018 to 2023SEC-verified
Safety record
No incidents on record for Karakuri.
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
Operator customers (1)
- Karakuri2 deployments
Recent coverage
Karakuri in third-party press
Peers
144 peers across 1 segment. Every Karakuri competitor derived from shared form-factor and application-domain edges.
service(144)
113 companies in this segment · competitive (HHI 831.3520919269878) · leader Bond at 1957%
- Artly Coffeedirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Bear Roboticsdirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Blendiddirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Botristadirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Cafe Xdirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Chef Roboticsdirect competitor(inferred)strong
Supplied by (1)
Mechanical / contract manufacturing
- KUKA AGvia Karakuri DK-OneKUKA KR AGILUS six-axis robot (up to 900mm reach)suppliesended
Inbound supply edges feeding this company directly or via the models it owns. Same source bar as the outbound view (verified against at least two strong sources).
Financial state
- Total funding
- $14.4M
- Reporting basis
- private_reported
- Lifecycle stage
- wound_down
- Counterparty risk class
- high
- Going concern
- flaggedDefunct (administration Jun 2023; assets sold ~GBP 350k).
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Funding rounds (2)
Karakuri’s 2 disclosed rounds, $14M in total, oldest to newest.
- Seed2020-12-02
$8M · $34M post
Investors: firstminute capital (lead), Hoxton Ventures, Taylor Brothers, UK Future Fund, Ocado Group
- Strategic2019-07-01
$6M(reported) · $48M post
Investors: Ocado Group (lead)
Timeline
Every recorded move in Karakuri’s history, most recent first: funding rounds, partnerships, acquisitions, supply-chain starts, key hires, and press.
Funding roundSeed funding round
2020-12-02Seed raising $8400000
Funding roundStrategic funding round
2019-07-01Strategic raising $6000000
Key hireBarney Wragg joins as Co-founder & CEO
2018-04-01Barney Wragg appointed Co-founder & CEO
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Verified media addedVerifiedJun 6, 2026
Karakuri DK-One demo (historical)
- Record createdJun 6, 2026
Added to the verified registry
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedJun 1, 2024
Karakuri DK-One at United Kingdom, Europe
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedJun 1, 2024
Karakuri DK-One at United States (multiple hotel chains)
Sources (5)
- https://www.therobotreport.com/food-robotics-startup-karakuri-shutting-down/
- https://www.uktech.news/foodtech/karakuri-appoints-administrators-20230620
- https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/02/food-robotics-startup-karakuri-unveils-automated-canteen-plus-8-4m-investment-led-by-firstminute/ · 2020-12-02
- https://www.uktech.news/news/karakuri-secures-63m-unveils-worlds-first-automated-canteen-20201203 · 2020-12-03
- https://retailtechinnovationhub.com/home/2023/6/20/journeys-end-robotics-startup-karakuri-collapses-after-failing-to-secure-new-funding · 2023-06-20
Common questions
What is Karakuri?
What does Karakuri make?
Who competes with Karakuri?
Who is the CEO of Karakuri?
Where is Karakuri headquartered?
How much funding has Karakuri raised?
Where does Karakuri operate robots?
How many robots has Karakuri deployed?
Is Karakuri a top robotics company?
When was Karakuri founded?
Is Karakuri safe?
Methodology: Verified · 5 sources (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-08-21
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-08-21
Sources by quality tier
- 3
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
- 1
- secondary-trade-publication
- Trade publication
- 1
- secondary-industry-publication
- Industry publication
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for Karakuri.Peer companies
- Bear Robotics3 models
- KEENON Robotics2 models
- Richtech Robotics2 models
- Artly Coffee1 model
- Blendid1 model
- Botrista1 model
In the press
Recent coverage mentioning Karakuri from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Food robotics startup Karakuri shutting down
The Robot Report covers Karakuri's shutdown after failing to secure new funding, with talks with Henny Penny collapsing. Founder and CEO Barney Wragg announced the wind-down.
Journey's end: robotics startup Karakuri collapses after failing to secure new funding
Retail Tech Innovation Hub reports on Karakuri's collapse after funding talks with Henny Penny fell through, leading to administration.
Karakuri secures £6.3M, unveils world's first automated canteen
UKTN reports on Karakuri's £6.3M raise and DK-One launch, noting total funding of £13.5M to date.
Food robotics startup Karakuri unveils automated canteen, plus $8.4M investment led by firstminute
TechCrunch coverage of Karakuri's DK-One unveiling and $8.4M funding round led by firstminute capital, with participation from Hoxton Ventures, Ocado Group, and UK Future Fund.
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/karakuri.md
- RSS feed: /companies/karakuri/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/ce52b00c-e04f-4f69-9b7f-96d5b34e4767
- Revision history: /companies/karakuri/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Peer companies
- Bear Robotics3 models
- KEENON Robotics2 models
- Richtech Robotics2 models
- Artly Coffee1 model
- Blendid1 model
- Botrista1 model
Video
Demonstration of Karakuri's FRYR automated fry line, controlling time, temperature, and quantity when frying foods.
Heat Index
Category contender75/100
A composite of competitive footprint, funding, press velocity, active partnerships, and supply-chain edges. Different from the Intelligence score below (which is per-form-factor productization). Non-robotics companies cap at 25.
Reality vs attention
Karakuri draws attention at the 13th percentile but verifies reality at the 45th percentile among food_service robots. Hype Gap -31.5, 15th widest among food_service robots.
6-month trend
Analysis
Clean safety record across 2 verified deployments. Funding runway warrants monitoring: last known round 70 months ago.
Signal flags
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Sep 6, 2026