Ajay Sunkara With Nala Robotics

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Chicago, Illinois, it’s time for Chicago Business Radio brought to you by FirmSpace, your private sanctuary for productivity and growth. To learn more, go to Firmspace.com. Now here’s your host.

Max Kantor: [00:00:21] Hey, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Chicago Business Radio before we get into today’s show, I want to shout out our sponsor. Today’s show is sponsored by firm SpaceX and thanks to firm SpaceX because without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important and fascinating stories that we do. And today we have a very fascinating and important story to share. My guest today is the president and co-founder of Nala Robotics, so please welcome to the show. Ajay Sunkara, welcome to the show, Ajay.

Ajay Sunkara: [00:00:51] Well, thanks, Max. Thanks for having me.

Max Kantor: [00:00:53] I’m excited and very interested in what we are going to talk about today. I’ve been looking you up all day, kind of checking out your things and and what you guys are doing, but let’s jump right in. What is Nahla Robotics and how you guys serve in the community?

Ajay Sunkara: [00:01:07] Well, Nala is a fully automatic robotic chef. It’s kind of meant to automate the entire food making process, in fact. And it’s actually going to solve a lot of issues that we are currently facing, you know, with the impact of the pandemic. In fact, talking about the shortage that we have in the in the restaurant industry in terms of labor or we’re talking about contactless food prep and delivery. After the COVID thing, all these things have have been such a big priority to the community. And with nano robotics, we believe we can address a few of them.

Max Kantor: [00:01:50] So was Nano Robotics founded specifically for the food industry?

Ajay Sunkara: [00:01:56] That’s right, yeah, in fact, Nala is is designed only for the food industry. We started the company four years ago and we actually will be touching five next month, in fact. But the it’s we’ve been working on this for a while and with the pandemic coming, we kind of like went on the fast lane to kind of customize it to the current market trends, in fact.

Max Kantor: [00:02:20] Yeah, I’m sure the pandemic for a lot of people and for all of us, really, it was such a hardship. But for you guys, almost in a way, it sped up things. I mean, it gave you a tremendous opportunity to introduce what you guys are doing.

Ajay Sunkara: [00:02:32] Exactly, yeah, so, yeah, so all the way through, we we’ve been we’ve been concentrating on the food contamination, the Illuminati cross contamination kind of like being consistent in the food prep. But with the pandemic thing of the labor shortages, as well as the contactless food prep has been a priority and we could address that.

Max Kantor: [00:02:53] So I know you all just opened kind of your your very first kitchen. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got that going and what it actually is?

Ajay Sunkara: [00:03:03] Oh, yeah, we have actually opened our first two restaurants at the Mall of India in Naperville. And so the first restaurant, it’s actually a chicken and wing place. We’re talking about fried chicken, chicken tenders, wings and it’s called one mean chicken. And we also have another kitchen that opened there. It’s called Suya Defense. It’s more of South Indian breakfast. And so both the restaurants are basically the storefronts. But the actual back end part of it is done by the robot actually cooks the food for both the restaurants, and the front end is two different restaurants. But when you come to the back, it’s the same kitchen that the robot cooks the food there.

Max Kantor: [00:03:50] So in addition to the robot who’s cooking the food, are there human employees as well?

Ajay Sunkara: [00:03:56] Oh, yeah, we do have human employees right now. The plating part of it for now at one point zero, the building part of it is still manual as well as we have staff there to greet you at the point of sale to greet and take your order. So we still have the the human touch there, but the actual food prep outfit, the handling part of it is is done by the robot.

Max Kantor: [00:04:20] In fact, how many employees total do you guys have in your kitchens versus a standard restaurant?

Ajay Sunkara: [00:04:29] So typically we would be needing one third of the staff that a standard restaurant would operate with. For instance, if you’re a regular restaurant needs like 20 employees, we’d be needing anywhere from six to seven. So 30 percent of the regular staff is what we need now.

Max Kantor: [00:04:47] Do you see this in just fast casual settings, or can your robots eventually be expanded out to other types of restaurants?

Ajay Sunkara: [00:04:56] Well, it’s pretty much it can fit into any kind of set up right from fast casual to to fine dining virtually would be perfect for a cloud kitchen concept as well. So kind of pretty much whatever the model that we have, we can customize the total machine into to fit that need, in fact.

Max Kantor: [00:05:18] And how does it work?

Ajay Sunkara: [00:05:22] Oh, well, the way it works is it actually has millions of recipes in its database, so we decode the recipes into the database and the so whenever a dish is ordered, the robot actually goes and picks up. The recipe from the database kind of checks up the profile of the customer and kind of fine-tune it to to what they exactly need, for instance, like if this customer has a history of ordering something always a little spicy, you know, so it’s going to it’s going to spice it up. Someone needs it really cold. You know, it’s going to solve them at like the temperature, in fact what they need. So really kind of customize it based on the history of the customer. And then it goes to work. So it precisely puts those ingredients in your recipe. Calls for 10 grams of oil. Medium, rare or whatever it is like, it’s exactly fit fitting. This thing has hundreds of sensors, but actually monitors every step of it. And you know, the the entire cooking process is is thoroughly monitored and it’s been delivered, in fact.

Max Kantor: [00:06:28] Wow, that is super cool. That is that is just so awesome. And it’s funny. You mentioned Spice because I cannot stand spice. I’m like the I have to have everything as bland as possible. So if I went there, it would. All the sensors would just say, let’s make it as bland as we possibly can for him. No, no spice for me at all. If I had a recipe that like I really loved, maybe a family recipe. Is there a way I can submit it to your database of recipes?

Ajay Sunkara: [00:06:55] Oh, that’s right. In fact. So we have this concept of called immortalize your grandma’s recipe. We would be launching that pretty soon, in fact. So the concept of that is your, for instance, like your grandma, grandma, pasta or whatever dish that you know that you have as a family tradition, you actually can code it into the database with the exact ingredients, exact quantities and whenever you need it. Or whenever you feel you want to taste that food, you just go online all of that food. You can either pick it up or get it delivered through a delivery app, in fact.

Max Kantor: [00:07:32] So who is the customer for knowledge robotics? Who’s your average customer?

Ajay Sunkara: [00:07:39] The average customer is. Is anyone who actually eats fast casual, anyone who actually loves to dine out, and also anyone who actually wants to have consistent food that’s tasty and kind of adventurous as well. So we have this surprise me button where, you know it actually is going to try a new item for you. So our average customer kind of varies multi cuisine. So it’s kind of pretty much anyone who loves eating out.

Max Kantor: [00:08:05] And how did you test your robot chef? Did you guys have your own kitchen? Did you take over a kitchen of a restaurant? How was it tested to kind of figure out the best way for it to work?

Ajay Sunkara: [00:08:18] Well, it’s it’ll be been having it in our office for a while now. So most of our staff, they don’t get their lunch boxes anymore. We’ve been trying it for quite quite a good amount of time. We did cater for a few events. Most of them related to our own form, in fact. And the first restaurant that we have, it’s actually built from scratch every bit of it, and it was built from scratch, in fact. So we did test it out quite a bit. Kind of fine tuned it. And we’re still learning. In fact, not just us, even the machine, its air power, in fact. And what that means is it actually gets smarter and smarter every day. As I mentioned earlier, it goes based on the history, in fact, and you know, it gets finer and finer, smarter and smarter. The more the data it has, the most moderate gets, in fact. So we’re going to see the future versions of Malla, like pretty, pretty smart in terms of getting into new recipes, getting into the customer trends of the area, for instance, like, you know, what people love in Naperville might be different to what people love. Somewhere in the city, in fact. So it actually would kind of customize based on the weather, for instance, the weather is cool. Like, like today it might it might be preferring, or it might throw your recommendations or foods that are that are pretty decent for the for the weather right now.

Max Kantor: [00:09:39] Can other restaurants buy your nulla technology robot?

Ajay Sunkara: [00:09:45] So we are actually currently in works of partnering with a few chains, you know, to have nanotechnology put in there, but also not just a chain or an established restaurant. We have this feature that we’ll be launching very soon called the marketplace. And what the marketplace is, it’s it’s a platform where anyone from a from a Michelin star to a home chef to pretty much anyone who has a desire or passion to cook and serve you. A quality food can go onto the can go online to a marketplace, create a virtual restaurant or have it upload their recipes and their menus into it and stop serving their food instantly. And for instance, if you have 10 locations of tomorrow and someone who goes online can upload their recipes and all these 10 locations can instantly start serving the virtual menu.

Max Kantor: [00:10:40] Wow, that’s incredible. That is absolutely incredible. Now what other verticals are you in within the food industry?

Ajay Sunkara: [00:10:48] So basically, Nulla would have five different verticals. The first one is the restaurants that we discussed about our own restaurants. I’m talking about the Taiwan that we’re starting early next week, the the Indian Kitchen. We actually want to have a virtual restaurant for soups and salads. So the typical Nala company owned restaurants is our first vertical and we have another vertical for on the go food side factor. We’re talking about, you know, frozen foods or on the go foods that you can find in a local grocery store or, you know, somewhere in your neighborhood stores where you know, the the machine. Actually, during this during its off peak hours, it actually would make the food kind of freeze it and keep it ready to be sold in the shelves. The second vertical, the third one is the meal plan. So since the machine can pretty much cook every day around the clock, we’ll be having this meal plan to so freshly prepared meals every day. Some it sounds like someone has a dietary restriction or someone needs a freshly prepared diet. Food, in fact, knows all these things can be prepared with meal plan. The next vertical is a marketplace, the one that I talked about earlier, where anyone from a home chef to celebrity to you have your own recipes store own grandma recipe stored there. So somewhere a platform where anyone can create a restaurant or order food and stop spending thousands and thousands to build their own restaurant, that’s a market place vertical. And the last one we have is is a business partnership. It’s more of a B2B thing that we discussed earlier, where we partner with existing restaurant chains and customized Lala to fit in their kitchen, in fact.

Max Kantor: [00:12:38] Now what you guys are doing is so innovative, so game changing. How do you see this impacting the future of the restaurant industry?

Ajay Sunkara: [00:12:46] The technology, in fact, is is one area that the restaurant industry has always benefited, benefited from. If you look at the recent introduced the introduction of technology, is it on the pure systems or in the food to food delivery apps? It actually helped the restaurant industry survive during the pandemic. It actually had the survive industry reached new levels in terms of their, you know, their service. In fact, if you take a few years ago, it’s only pizza businesses that were able to deliver to customers. Now, almost every restaurant is able to deliver because of the technology that they’ve adapted. Similarly, with the introduction of Nala, the entire food industry would be benefiting in terms of quality, consistent food you’d be saving on the food wastage type, which is a big budget constraint for a lot of restaurants. So food wastage, cross-contamination and all those things can be alleviated, and that’ll actually elevate the food sector as a whole effect.

Max Kantor: [00:13:46] So as we start to wrap things up, I do. I do have another question for you that I’m just so curious about. I’m assuming you’ve had a lot of dishes made by your knowledge chef. What’s your favorite thing the robot has made for you?

Ajay Sunkara: [00:13:59] Well, actually, that’s something I’m going to have for dinner again tonight. My favorite is is the spicy garlic wings, you know? And yeah, in fact, there was one of the first dishes that I made and always had the same amount of spice, you know, introduced to it. And that’s my favorite, actually.

Max Kantor: [00:14:17] Awesome. Well, next time I’m in Naperville, I’ll definitely have to come try out one mean chicken. And speaking of Naperville, tell us again where people can find your restaurants and if they’re interested in learning more, where they can find you online.

Ajay Sunkara: [00:14:30] Sure. So we are in Naperville at the Mall of India. It is right opposite to the Fox Valley Mall in between New York Street and Ogden on fifty nine and. You are open from 12 noon to nine p.m., in fact, all seven days of the week

Max Kantor: [00:14:51] And AJ is my last question for you. What do you need more of? What does Nahla Robotics need more of?

Ajay Sunkara: [00:14:58] A wall of what we need more of is is more recipes, more cuisines that we can introduce. We’re talking about the next versions of it. We’re going to have more like the pizza thing that you be introduced. We’re talking about the burger thing that will be introduced. So that’s what Nahla would be would be doing in the next coming future, in fact.

Max Kantor: [00:15:21] And is there a website that our listeners can find more about Nahla Robotics?

Ajay Sunkara: [00:15:26] Sure, it’s it’s nulla robotics dot com. You can go and check us out there. And also our Twitter handle is na’allah robotics so you can handle it. You can check us out on to transfer.

Max Kantor: [00:15:39] Awesome. Well, RJ, thank you so much for being on the show today. It’s been very fascinating talking to you and all the work you’re doing with knowledge robotics.

Ajay Sunkara: [00:15:46] Sure. Thank you, Max. Thank you for having me.

Max Kantor: [00:15:48] And thanks to you for listening to another episode of Chicago Business Radio. I’m max cantor and we’ll see you next time.

Intro: [00:15:55] This episode is Chicago Business Radio has been brought to you by firm SpaceX, your private sanctuary for productivity and growth. To learn more, go to Firme Space.com.