What TechMagic does

TechMagic株式会社 (TechMagic, Inc.) is a Japanese food-tech company founded in February 2018 by CEO Shiraki Hiroshi (白木 裕士) and headquartered in Koto-ku, Tokyo, with a secondary development base in Nagoya. The company develops and sells a portfolio of AI and robotics solutions for commercial kitchens and food factories, addressing Japan's severe restaurant and food-manufacturing labor shortage (83.5% of restaurants and 62.2% of food manufacturers report labor-shortage impact). Its core product family includes the I-Robo 2 next-generation stir-fry cooking robot (compact W700xD700xH1,320mm, ~30-second cleaning, 12-inch touchscreen, recipe-creation app), the original I-Robo stir-fry robot, P-Robo pasta cooking robot (~45 seconds per serving), M-Robo plating robot co-developed with Kewpie, S-Robo ingredient-supply robot, T-Robo cobot palletizing robot (no safety cage required), F-Robo deep-frying robot, and W-Robo general foodservice automation robot. The technology stack is built on ROS 2 with documented rclcpp/rclpy, lifecycle nodes, launch files, and Docker integration, combining computer vision, machine learning for handling irregular sticky food, and precise motion control of heat, time, and pan/spatula rotation to replicate chef-grade flavor at scale.

TechMagic makes money through a mix of (1) one-time hardware sales and deployment of cooking and industrial robots to restaurant chains and food manufacturers with installation and ongoing maintenance, (2) bespoke custom robot development under co-development contracts (e.g., the KFC Japan fried-potato robot, Kewpie's M-Robo and S-Robo), (3) self-cooking "Auto-Kitchen DEKITATE-GO" service combining I-Robo 2 with refrigerated meal-kit storage in offices, cafeterias, and cafes, (4) directly operated showcase restaurants (oh my DOT soup-noodle shop in Shibuya since April 2023, MAGIC CHEF cafeteria in Telecom Center West 5F since April 2026), and a planned future SaaS business. Pricing is not publicly disclosed; all sales are direct B2B enterprise engagements. Go-to-market combines direct field sales, event-driven demand generation (CES, NRA Show, FOOMA JAPAN), and channel partnerships with strategic capital/business alliance partners (Kewpie, Ajinomoto, Fujimak, Oriental Land Innovations, Nissin Foods HD), with website contact-form-driven inbound across consultation, mass deployment, consignment development, and partner program categories.

The company serves three primary customer segments: large Japanese restaurant chains (Osaka Osho, Ippudo, Korakuen, Lawson, Pronto, Nichirei, KFC Japan, Curry House Rio, Ramen Kagetsu Arashi, JR-Cross); food manufacturers and central kitchens (Kewpie, Ajinomoto, Nissin Foods HD, Fujimak); and convenience stores plus corporate/public cafeterias (Lawson, Hokkaido Electric Power, Shikoku Electric Power, DPL Nagareyama IV logistics facility, Yamanashi Prefectural Government). As of March 2024, TechMagic had raised JPY 4.4 billion (~$30M) in cumulative third-party funding across Series B (JPY 1.5B, September 2021) and Series C (JPY 2.54B, March 2024), employs 51-100 people, and has won the CES 2024 Innovation Award (Robotics), 2024 NRA Kitchen Innovation Award, and FOOMA Award 2025 nomination. A humanoid robotics initiative was announced in August 2025 to expand into general-purpose food-service humanoid robots.

Name

TechMagic

Legal name

TechMagic株式会社 (TechMagic, Inc.)

Website

https://techmagic.co.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

TechMagic is a Japanese food-tech company founded in 2018 that develops AI-powered cooking and food-handling robots (stir-fry, pasta, frying, plating, palletizing) for major Japanese restaurant chains and food manufacturers, addressing severe labor shortages in the foodservice industry.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Food service robotics

NAICS

Commercial and Service Industry Machinery Manufacturing (3333), Food Product Machinery Manufacturing (333241)

SIC

Refrigeration & Service Industry Machinery (3580)

akta.pro primary industry

Service & Hospitality Robots (HDAAAIAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Industrial Robots (Articulated, SCARA, Delta, Cartesian) (IMAHAHAA)

Keywords

• Cooking robots
• Food service robotics
• Commercial kitchen automation
• Stir-fry automation
• Food factory robotics

Headquarters

HQ city

Koto

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Cooking and Industrial Robot Hardware Sales: Primary revenue stream from one-time sale and deployment of cooking robots (I-Robo, I-Robo 2, P-Robo) and business/industrial robots (M-Robo, S-Robo, T-Robo, W-Robo, F-Robo) to restaurant chains and food manufacturers. Products are sold with installation and ongoing maintenance support.
2. Bespoke Custom Robot Development: Contract-based custom development of new robot solutions tailored to specific client requirements (e.g., fried-potato robot for KFC, salad-plating robot for Kewpie, palletizing robot for Kewpie). Engagements begin with co-development and progress to commercialization.
3. Food Service Operations / Next-Generation Restaurant Development: TechMagic operates its own restaurants (oh my DOT soup noodle shop in Shibuya since April 2023; MAGIC CHEF cafeteria in Telecom Center West 5F opened April 2026) and develops next-generation restaurant formats that deploy its own robots. Functions as a showcase plus revenue-generating operations.
4. Future SaaS / Robot-Enabled Restaurant Services: Stated future plan to develop SaaS businesses leveraging cooking and business robots in restaurants and factories for synergistic value capture (planned, not yet launched as of latest disclosure).
5. Self-Cooking Service / Auto-Kitchen 'DEKITATE-GO': Service model pairing I-Robo 2 with refrigerated meal-kit storage installed in company cafeterias, cafes, and offices. Employees/customers insert meal kits and the robot cooks freshly made-to-order meals ('Auto-Kitchen DEKITATE-GO').

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

TechMagic designs, manufactures, and sells AI-driven cooking and food-handling robots for commercial restaurants and food factories. Its flagship products include the I-Robo 2 stir-fry cooking robot, P-Robo pasta robot, F-Robo frying robot, and a lineup of business/industrial robots (M-Robo plating, S-Robo ingredient supply, T-Robo palletizing, W-Robo service automation, D-Robo drinks, N-Robo noodles). The company also operates directly owned restaurants (oh my DOT, MAGIC CHEF) and develops next-generation restaurant formats such as the self-cooking Auto-Kitchen DEKITATE-GO.

Product overview

TechMagic operates as a platform-plus-modules robotics company offering a portfolio of cooking and business robots unified by a shared hardware/software architecture. Its core cooking-robot family comprises I-Robo2 (next-generation stir-fry), the predecessor I-Robo, P-Robo (pasta), N-Robo (soup noodles used in its own oh my DOT restaurant), and F-Robo (deep-frying, deployed at Lawson). Its business-robot family includes W-Robo (general foodservice automation), M-Robo (plating/portioning), S-Robo (ingredient supply, co-developed with Kewpie), and T-Robo (palletizing, co-developed with Kagome). These robots share common capabilities — recipe registration, robotic-arm motion control, AI-based vision/perception for irregular ingredients, and tablet-based UI — and are sold into restaurant chains (Osaka Ohsho, Ippudo, Pronto, Korakuen, Lawson) and food factories under the vision "世界のおいしいを、進化させるパートナー" (A partner that evolves the world's deliciousness). The platform also supports self-cooking deployments (Auto Kitchen DEKITATE-GO) and TechMagic's directly operated showcase restaurants (oh my DOT and MAGIC CHEF).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• I-Robo / I-Robo2: Next-generation stir-fry cooking robot that automates the entire process from stir-fry cooking to pan cleaning with a single pan, controlling heat, time, and pan/spatula rotation.
• P-Robo
• W-Robo
• M-Robo
• T-Robo
• F-Robo
• S-Robo
• D-Robo
• oh my DOT
• MAGIC CHEF

Products and services

• I-Robo 2 Stir-Fry Cooking Robot Next-generation stir-fry cooking robot that automates seasoning, stirring, heating, plating, and pan washing within a single compact unit. Controls heat temperature, cooking time, and pan and spatula rotation speed and direction per registered menu to faithfully reproduce chef-crafted recipes. Sold to restaurant chains such as Ippudo, Osaka Osho, Korakuen, Lawson, Pronto, and Nichirei.
• P-Robo Pasta Cooking Robot Pasta cooking robot that automates noodle boiling, sauce dispensing, ingredient supply, heating, and post-cooking pan washing. Cooks one serving of pasta in approximately 45 seconds, enabling on-demand freshly cooked pasta in commercial kitchens.
• W-Robo Service/Automation Robot Business automation robot for foodservice and food-industry operations, designed to perform auxiliary tasks in commercial kitchens and restaurant environments.
• M-Robo Plating Robot Plating robot co-developed with Kewpie for high-accuracy continuous portioning of irregularly shaped, sticky side dishes (e.g., potato salad) into containers. Automates measuring and plating in central kitchens and food factories as part of the joint 2030 Future Food Factory vision.
• T-Robo Palletizing Robot Cobot-based palletizing robot that automates pallet stacking of packaged goods in factories and warehouses. Operates without safety fences, integrates low-cost sensors with TechMagic's proprietary recognition technology, and is operated via tablet without specialized programming skills.
• F-Robo Frying Robot Deep-frying robot designed for foodservice and convenience-store operations. First deployed at Lawson Takanawa Gateway City store in 2025 to prepare Karaage-kun fried chicken. Exhibited at the National Restaurant Association Show 2025.
• S-Robo Salad/Ingredient Supply Robot Ingredient measuring and supply robot that automates placement of multiple irregularly shaped toppings (lettuce chips, chicken, beans, corn, nuts, cheese) into salad bowls via a robot arm on a conveyor. Co-developed with Kewpie for the Future Food Factory 2030 initiative.
• D-Robo Drink Robot Drink service robot that uses precision robot-arm motion control to transport full glasses upright without spilling, leveraging high-resolution angle detection executed hundreds of times per second. Featured in TechMagic's 'Impossible robot motion' demonstration.
• N-Robo Noodle Robot Customizable noodle-cooking robot that prepares personalized soup-noodle dishes from a choice of 10 soups and 3 noodles. Deployed in TechMagic's directly operated oh my DOT specialty shop in Shibuya.
• Next-Generation Restaurant Development Service Service offering for next-generation restaurant format development, including self-cooking concepts such as Auto-Kitchen DEKITATE-GO, where customers place meal kits into I-Robo 2 units co-located with refrigerators in offices, cafeterias, and cafes for freshly cooked meals on demand. Includes consignment robot development and new business format consulting.
• oh my DOT Shibuya (N-Robo Noodle Restaurant) TechMagic's directly operated soup-noodle specialty shop on Spain-zaka in Shibuya (opened April 29, 2023). Customers customize orders from 10 soups and 3 noodles, prepared by the N-Robo cooking robot. Functions as a customer-facing showcase and in-house development testbed.
• MAGIC CHEF (Company-Operated Cafeteria) TechMagic-operated staff cafeteria opened on the 5th floor of Telecom Center West Building (Tokyo), functioning as a real-world showcase and testbed for TechMagic's robotic cooking solutions.
• Bespoke Custom Robot Development Contract-based custom development of new robot solutions tailored to specific client requirements (e.g., fried-potato robot for KFC Japan, salad-plating robot for Kewpie, palletizing robot for Kewpie). Engagements begin with co-development and progress to commercialization.

Named customers19 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability8 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and strategic.

• Kewpie (キユーピー)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerCapital and business alliance. Co-developed the M-Robo salad/portioning robot over 2 years (capable of plating irregular sticky foods like potato salad with high weight precision). Tested the S-Robo salad-assembly robot at Kewpie's Sengawa Kyuport employee cafeteria (September 2023, 2 salad types, up to 100 servings/day). Also co-developing the T-Robo palletizing robot for factory/warehouse environments with Kewpie. Stated joint goal: 'Future Food Factory' by 2030.
• Ajinomoto (味の素)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerCapital and business alliance (announced August 2023) following collaboration since October 2021. Ajinomoto's proprietary 'Oishisa Design Technology' supports TechMagic's development of advanced stir-fry cooking robots, including I-Robo (completed June 2023). Joint roadmap targets improved cooking quality, shorter cooking time, and more compact robot form factors for the foodservice industry.
• Fujimak (フジマック)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerSeries C investor (March 2024) and long-term partner. Fujimak is a major Japanese commercial kitchen equipment manufacturer; collaboration focuses on bringing robotics-driven innovation to the commercial kitchen industry and jointly developing industrial/factory robots. Listed as customer logo on TechMagic homepage.
• Oriental Land Innovations (株式会社オリエンタルランド・イノベーションズ)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerInvestment partnership announced October 2023. Oriental Land Group operates Tokyo Disney Resort and faces labor-intensive food-service challenges; partnership aligns on building partner robots that go beyond efficiency/labor-saving to actively create happiness in food-service contexts.
• Nihon Shokken (日本食研)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration to accelerate food industry digital transformation (food DX) announced March 2026. Specific scope includes joint development of cooking automation solutions leveraging Nihon Shokken's food-industry expertise.
• Hirotaka Tanaka (田中宏隆), CEO of UnlocXstrategicOthersAppointed Outside Director (社外取締役) of TechMagic at the 6th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on March 28, 2024. Founder of Japan's first food conference 'Smart Kitchen Summit Japan' and board director at Base Food, Cookpad (until March 2024), and Space FoodSphere. Provides foodtech ecosystem expertise to support TechMagic's global expansion.
• eiicon Co., Ltd. (株式会社eiicon)strategicOthersOperates Yamanashi Prefecture's STARTUP YAMANASHI OPEN INNOVATION PROGRAM 2023 on behalf of Yamanashi Prefecture. Coordinated the open-innovation program that selected TechMagic for the 'co-creation for labor-saving and unmanned operation in restaurants' theme, including Alps Co., Ltd. trial implementation at the prefectural government cafe (Feb-Mar 2024).
• Japan KFC (日本ケンタッキー・フライド・チキン)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerSigned development agreement (February 2023) for TechMagic to develop a fried-potato (French fry) cooking robot for KFC Japan. Joint development addresses labor shortage and standardizes portion quality across QSR operations.
• Eat and Holdings (株式会社イートアンドホールディングス, parent of Osaka Osho)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerThrough subsidiary Osaka Osho (344 stores nationwide as of August 2023), ongoing robot-deployment partnership. Eat and Holdings executives (e.g., Bunno Koji, General Manager of Restaurant Planning Division) speak at industry events about deploying TechMagic robots in Osaka Osho stores. Multi-store I-Robo / I-Robo 2 rollout including West-Gotanda, Saginuma, and Expo 2025 booth.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights9 records

Broad incumbents

• Fujitsu: Large Japanese IT and automation vendor with AI/robotics initiatives that overlap with food-industry digital transformation. Cited as a key player in Japan AI culinary robotics; potential competitor or systems integrator for TechMagic's restaurant and factory customers.
• Yaskawa Electric: Major Japanese industrial-robotics and motion-control manufacturer (Motoman). Identified as a key player in the Japan AI culinary robot market; competes in the upstream motion-control and robotic-arm layer underpinning TechMagic's S-Robo, M-Robo, and T-Robo.
• ZMP Inc. Established Japanese robotics company offering autonomous mobility, delivery robots, and food/industrial automation. Overlaps with TechMagic in service robotics for restaurants and food logistics, with broader autonomous-vehicle exposure.
• Mitsubishi Electric: Diversified Japanese industrial conglomerate with a substantial factory-automation and robotics business. Named alongside TechMagic as a key Japan AI culinary robot market player and a potential partner/competitor in food-factory automation.

Direct peers

• Miso Robotics: US-based developer of the Flippy frying/grilling robot for QSR kitchens. Closest US analog to TechMagic's F-Robo and I-Robo 2, with established chain pilots in the US and active competition for global QSR automation contracts.
• Connected Robotics: Tokyo-based food-service robotics startup building cooking and serving robots for Japanese restaurants and commercial kitchens. Direct competitor to TechMagic's I-Robo 2, P-Robo, and plating robots, frequently listed alongside TechMagic as a key Japan AI culinary robot player.
• Picnic Works: US food-assembly robotics company specializing in pizza and bowl-construction automation. Direct competitor in the automated food-assembly and ingredient-supply category, comparable to TechMagic's S-Robo and W-Robo.
• Creator (Creator, Inc.): Japanese robotics startup developing burger-assembly and food-preparation robots. Closely comparable to TechMagic in the automated commercial-kitchen category, particularly for QSR and chain-restaurant use cases in Japan.

Emerging players

• Bear Robotics: US/Korea-based service-robotics company providing indoor food-delivery and serving robots to restaurants and hospitality. Adjacent peer competing for the same foodservice labor-automation budget as TechMagic's restaurant deployments.
• Sony AI / Sony Group: Sony's AI and robotics arm is identified alongside TechMagic as a key player in Japan's AI culinary robotics market. It has the R&D budget and brand to compete in food-AI, though its food-service product focus is still developing.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/TechMagicInc
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCcrCZ7ZjIGi2Rsk5wnP2ygw
• Facebookfacebook.com/TechMagicKK
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/techmagic-kk

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors10 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about TechMagic