Robot barista to be deployed in Japan

Robot barista ELLA will be situated across stations of passenger train line.

Retail tech startup Crown Technologies has secured a strategic, cross-border investment from Japan’s JR East to deploy AI-powered robot barista ELLA in Japan.

ELLA will be rolled out across stations of Japan’s passenger train line operator, which serves an average of 17 million passengers daily, in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“Japan has long been known to embrace innovation and be at the forefront of using AI and robotics to solve social issues and achieve economic growth. By placing their bet on our technology that we’ve built in Singapore to serve the exact purpose, it not only puts us on the map, but is also the strongest testament to the vision that my team and I have worked tirelessly to build upon in the last two years,” Crown Technologies founder Keith Tan said.

With this, Crown Technologies will be launching its Series A round shortly, as well as the deployment of 30 additional commercial units of ELLA across Singapore.