Blendid is opening the company’s fourth food robotics kiosk at Walmart in Fremont, California.
Bay Area–based Blendid offers an innovative, autonomous, and contactless food automation platform that leverages machine learning, robotics, and artificial intelligence to create nutrient-dense and delicious smoothies, made on-demand, and customized to meet the unique health and taste preferences of individual consumers.
Vipin Jain, CEO and co-founder of Blendid, says: “The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the focus on food safety globally. At Blendid, we’re working with many essential businesses to help integrate a solution for safe, contactless food preparation and delivery.
“Our newest location is the beginning of a partnership with Walmart to help meet their customers’ need for healthy and tasty food that’s affordable, quick, and completely contactless from order to pickup. We are continuing to grow, learn, and adapt to the evolving needs of the future of foodservice.”
Blendid’s stand-alone, contactless kiosk includes a robotic arm, blenders, a refrigeration system, and numerous dispensers that store and dispense a variety of ingredients including solids (such as fruits and vegetables), liquids (such as coconut water), and superfoods (such as chia, flax, and ginger).
Blendid’s proprietary food operating system (foodOS) processes the orders and payment, measures and dispenses precise amounts of ingredients for customized drinks, and blends, pours, and stores each smoothie until a consumer is ready for pickup. The Blendid system can process up to 45 drinks an hour and nine drinks simultaneously.
The Fremont kiosk will debut Blendid’s latest model, which has a sleeker design, smaller footprint, and a variety of new features including completely contactless ordering and pickup (managed using a consumer’s smartphone), make-ahead drink storage, and enhanced machine vision technology.
Blendid’s expert team of nutritionists and chefs have created a variety of recipes for the Fremont and Walmart community that are all 100 percent plant-based, vegan, and gluten-free, and are listed below.
- The Classic: Traditional strawberry-banana flavor with no added sugar that includes flax for fiber and healthy fats. This smoothie works well as a tasty lower-calorie meal replacement or snack.
- Banana Jolt: With a winning combination of bananas, coconut water, whole grain oats, and coffee, this flavor-packed drink is perfect for a morning or afternoon pick-me-up.
- PB Chocolicious: A delicious and sweet beverage that includes banana, mango, peanut, cocoa, oats, agave, and coconut water for a deeply satisfying treat that delivers on flavor and nutrients.
The Blendid kiosk in the Fremont Walmart location at 44009 Osgood Road will be open seven days a week from 10 am to 7 pm. Consumers can place orders in person at the kiosk with their smartphone or can order ahead with the Blendid app for a cost of $4.97 to $5.97 per 12-ounce drink.
