Quickly grabbing a coffee from a vending machine is undeniably an important skill to be picked up by students. But if Hamburg-based food-tech start-up Circus has its way, this knowledge be greatly expanded in the future. Founder Nikolas Bullwinkel wants to use his food truck-like kitchen robots to cook for students and other groups of people on a large scale.

The company, which has been listed on the stock exchange since January, is starting out in China, where it recently signed a letter of intent for the introduction of 5,400 kitchen robots in Beijing's educational institutions. According to Circus, the estimated cumulative sales potential in the coming years is in the low single-digit billion euro range. The share price rose by almost 10% on the day of the announcement.

„We quickly realised that the potential in China is enormous due to the sheer size of the market,“ says Bullwinkel. „We were on a campus that is home to over 70,000 students who are catered for in 40 canteens. German universities have one, maybe two canteens. But the challenges are ultimately the same everywhere.“

The main problem that Circus wants to tackle with its kitchen machines is the shortage of staff in the catering industry. According to the German Hotel and Restaurant Association (Dehoga), in July 2023 the industry in Germany was short of 65,000 employees. In addition to demographic change, the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated the shortages, as many chefs and waiters sought other professions during the lockdowns.

The Circus robot model is now designed to prepare and package food completely without human intervention – with the help of two robotic arms, 50 motors and 25 light barriers. According to early estimates, it should be able to prepare dishes within a few minutes. The company is not alone on the market with its robot. Half an hour's drive from Circus, for example, is the Hamburg-based competitor Goodbytz, which recently raised 12 million euros in venture capital for its kitchen robots in October.

Bullwinkel, who was once also involved in the founding of the delivery service Flink, initially launched Circus 2021 as another food delivery service. At the time, the focus was on so-called ghost kitchens, i.e. restaurants that only prepare meals for collection or delivery but do not serve them in-house. Even back then, the aim was to turn system catering on its head: „There is maximum inefficiency in the industry, where a lot of staff are deployed in large spaces and where processes are barely digitalised,“ says Bullwinkel. „We wanted to offer solutions for this and at some point realised that software alone is not enough. What is needed is automation.“

Last year, Circus took over the Berlin-based kitchen robotics start-up Aitme, whose machines were originally only intended for company canteens. However, Bullwinkel now sees this as just one of several conceivable application scenarios. „We see many potential applications in public education and transport infrastructure, i.e. in universities, schools, hospitals, airports or railway stations, but also food retail. We want to take place wherever people move around in their everyday lives and are hungry – around the clock.“

In Germany, the start-up currently has offices in Berlin and Munich, in addition to Hamburg. The domestic market is exciting and offers many opportunities, as does the USA, says Bullwinkel. „It's not the case that we are now focussing fully on the Asia region just because we have found our first anchor partner there," he says. "On the contrary, this is now the starting point of our global strategy.“ He is „very confident“ that he will be able to announce further partners this year.

The company intends to meet demand primarily with smaller local factories. „Production facilities are planned in the USA as well as in Europe and Asia, although we are always looking for partners with large purchase volumes in order to keep costs low,“ says Bullwinkel. Depending on the configuration and market, a kitchen robot costs between 100,000 and 250,000 euros.

On the one hand, the decision to go public early was made in order to have opportunities for inorganic growth through acquisitions in the future. On the other hand, the company wanted to be able to offer employees share options and thus make itself attractive in the labour market. „There is currently a battle for talent in robotics, and everyone needs the best people,“ says Bullwinkel.