The verified answer
As of Sep 2026, DEPLOY verifies Chowbotics Sally: 1 model, 5 deployments across 4 regions, $16.0M raised. 1 source back the record.
CategoryFood service
Overview
Chowbotics was an American food robotics company that developed Sally, the world's first fresh food-making robot — a 3x3 foot automated kiosk that assembled customizable salads, grain bowls, and poke bowls from up to 22 ingredients in under a minute. Founded as Casabots in the Techstars Austin accelerator, the company was acquired by Doordash in February 2021 and shuttered in August 2022 after Sally failed to meet internal performance benchmarks.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- 5 deployments on file
- Active incidents
- None on file
Valuation of record
Company-claimedPriced roundSeries A-1 post-money
Key facts
Data & sources
Web sources
1
1 source backing this record.View all →
Models (1)
View all models →Partnerships
Every company Chowbotics Sally has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most-frequent partners
- 1DoorDash1× joint2 total
- 2Saladworks1× joint
Most recent
- DoorDash acquires Chowbotics2021-02-08with DoorDashoperating
- Chowbotics x Saladworks2020-08-04with Saladworksoperating
Chowbotics Sally on the deployment map
View the global map5 verified deployments across 4 regions, newest verified Jan 2021. Explore where Chowbotics Sally's robots are operating, by place and type.
- endedSally at Big Rapids, Michigan, USA →Midwest · verified Jan 2021
- pilotSally at Carteret, New Jersey, USA →Northeast · verified Jul 2020
- endedSally at Pepper Pike, Ohio, USA →Midwest · verified Jun 2020
- endedSally at Denver, Colorado, USA →Mountain West · verified May 2020
- endedSally at Little Rock, Arkansas, USA →Southeast · verified Jan 2019
View the full Chowbotics Sally deployment record →
Relationships
Founders (1)
- Deepak Sekarcofounderno longer at company
Former / Previously (2)
- Deepak Sekar Founder & CEOsecondary-verified
- Rick Wilmer CEOsecondary-verified
Safety record
No incidents on record for Chowbotics Sally.
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)
- Chowbotics Sally5 deployments
Recent coverage
Chowbotics Sally in third-party press
Peer companies
- Bear Robotics3 models
- KEENON Robotics2 models
- Richtech Robotics2 models
- Artly Coffee1 model
- Blendid1 model
- Botrista1 model
Financial state
- Total funding
- $16.0M
- Reporting basis
- private_reported
- Lifecycle stage
- growth
- Counterparty risk class
- moderate
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.
Partnerships
2 total · 2 operating · 2 ended
Every company Chowbotics Sally has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most recent
- DoorDash acquires Chowbotics2021-02-08with DoorDashoperating
- Chowbotics x Saladworks2020-08-04with Saladworksoperating
Most-frequent partners
- 1DoorDash1× joint2 total
- 2Saladworks1× joint
All 2 partnerships
open in the atlas →- investment2021-02-08concludedoperating
- Chowbotics x SaladworkswithSaladworksdeployment2020-08-04concludedoperating
Funding rounds (3)
Chowbotics Sally’s 2 disclosed rounds, $16M in total, oldest to newest.
- Acquired2021-02-08
Investors: Acquirer (Unknown) (lead)
- Series A-12018-06-15
$11M(reported) · $46M post
Investors: Foundry Group (lead), Techstars Ventures (co_lead)
- Series A2017-03-09
$5M(reported) · $30M post
Investors: Foundry Group (lead), Techstars Ventures (co_lead), Galvanize Ventures (follow), Geekdom Fund (follow)
Timeline
Every recorded move in Chowbotics Sally’s history, most recent first: funding rounds, partnerships, acquisitions, supply-chain starts, key hires, and press.
Funding roundAcquired funding round
2021-02-08Acquired
PartnershipDoorDash acquires Chowbotics
2021-02-08DoorDash acquired Chowbotics, maker of the Sally salad robot, to bring food preparation automation in-house. Chowbotics was valued at 6M in 2018. DoorDash shut down Chowbotics operations on Aug 31, 2022, after Sally robots failed to meet internal benchmarks, resulting in ~35 layoffs.
PartnershipChowbotics x Saladworks
2020-08-04Saladworks partnered with Chowbotics to deploy Sally robots in nontraditional locations like hospitals, universities, and grocery stores. Sally exclusively served Saladworks' rotating seasonal menus. The partnership expanded Saladworks to 40+ new locations across the US and Canada.
Funding roundSeries A-1 funding round
2018-06-15Series A-1 raising $11000000
Funding roundSeries A funding round
2017-03-09Series A raising $5000000
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Record createdJun 8, 2026
Added to the verified registry
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedJan 1, 2021
Sally at Big Rapids, Michigan, USA
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedJul 27, 2020
Sally at Carteret, New Jersey, USA
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedJun 1, 2020
Sally at Pepper Pike, Ohio, USA
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedMay 6, 2020
Sally at Denver, Colorado, USA
Sources (1)
Common questions
What is Chowbotics Sally?
What does Chowbotics Sally make?
Is Chowbotics Sally publicly traded?
Who competes with Chowbotics Sally?
Who is the CEO of Chowbotics Sally?
How can I invest in Chowbotics Sally?
Where is Chowbotics Sally headquartered?
How much funding has Chowbotics Sally raised?
Who owns Chowbotics Sally?
Where does Chowbotics Sally operate robots?
How many robots has Chowbotics Sally deployed?
Is Chowbotics Sally a top robotics company?
When was Chowbotics Sally founded?
Is Chowbotics Sally safe?
Methodology: Verified · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-08-21
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-08-21
Sources by quality tier
- 1
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for Chowbotics Sally.Peer companies
- Bear Robotics3 models
- KEENON Robotics2 models
- Richtech Robotics2 models
- Artly Coffee1 model
- Blendid1 model
- Botrista1 model
In the press
Recent coverage mentioning Chowbotics Sally from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Reasor’s rolls out Sally salad robot to three stores - Supermarket News
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DoorDash will shutter Chowbotics 18 months after acquisition - Restaurant Dive
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DoorDash will shutter Chowbotics 18 months after acquisition
DoorDash closes Chowbotics operations on Aug 31, 2022, just 18 months after acquiring it. Sally robots were not meeting DoorDash's internal benchmarks. About 35 layoffs result…
DoorDash's Chowbotics acquisition brings automation expertise in-house
DoorDash acquires Chowbotics, maker of the Sally salad robot, valued at 6M in 2018. Sally robots are used in hundreds of locations including universities, hospitals, and grocery…
Sally the Robot vending machine serves custom salads, bowls, pasta - Treasure Coast News
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Saladworks to expand into new markets with Chowbotics’ Sally fresh food robot - The Robot Report
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ShopRite uses robotics to offer contactless salad bar - Chain Store Age
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Heinen’s rolls out Sally the salad-making robot - Grocery Dive
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Chowbotics Quadruples Hospital Deployments of Sally, the Salad Robot
Chowbotics deploys 50+ new Sally robots to hospitals during COVID-19, quadrupling hospital presence from 16 to 70 by June 2020. Over 100 robots deployed worldwide serving 145,000+…
Order a Salad from Sally, the ‘World’s First Fresh Food Robot’ - PMQ Pizza
<a href="https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiTEFVX3lxTE04NzdpOFUyS1UwN0F6ZzJwMTdOQk5GbkxMMnVqeWFmSFJCMXFTSXZYRTUzbS11dndkMHBhQlJWRkV4bGpWcTY4UTVMQzM?oc=5"…
Chowbotics receives 1M of additional funding for fresh food-making robot
Chowbotics raises 1M Series A-1 led by Foundry Group and Techstars to extend Sally beyond salads to grain bowls, poke bowls, and breakfast bowls. The company also expands its…
A robot makes a mean Caesar salad, but will it cost jobs? - CNBC
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Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/sally-robot.md
- RSS feed: /companies/sally-robot/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/8c74b919-f57a-41e0-ad16-847203d0da45
- Revision history: /companies/sally-robot/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
Sally by Chowbotics can make a fresh customized salad at the touch of a button. Read full article: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/03/apple-fellow-rich-page-on-stealing-jobs-and-chowbotics-salad-making-robots/
Automation is key trend at National Restaurant Association Show 2016. Sally, a salad robot by Casabots made her delicious debut.
Charlie Ayers shows off the latest innovation at his Calafia Cafe — Sally the salad robot. Learn more about Charlie Ayers and the gourmet cafeteria food in Si
The fresh food robot, made by Chowbotics works with over 20 ingredients to create a salad in 90 seconds.
Chowbotics raises $11 million to move its robot beyond salads ★ Thanks for watching! Please leave a like if you enjoyed and tell me what you think in the c
Awesome salad from a robot - Sally. The inventor, Deepak Sekar, helped me make the salad a reality. Just happened to be in Silicon Valley and bam, had a new exp
Out with the old and in with the new! Say goodbye to vending machines with stale snacks and say hello to fresh salads from Chowbotics!
Heat Index
Category contender79/100
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
Chowbotics Sally draws attention at the 71st percentile but verifies reality at the 71st percentile among food_service robots. Hype Gap +0, 10th widest among food_service robots.
6-month trend
Analysis
Clean safety record across 5 verified deployments. Funding runway warrants monitoring: last known round 68 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