In a difficult time for the restaurant industry, large chains such as chipotle and digging are investing money in automated makelines from startup Hyphen.
The San Jose, California-based company aims to help restaurants achieve two key goals in a hyper-competitive environment: fast performance and good customer service. The technology offers a “less chaotic and more elegant experience” for both workers and guests, co-founder and CEO Stephen Klein told CNBC.
“We're probably doing a bowl every 10 to 15 seconds. At peak performance, we usually have more capacity than they demand, especially…for lunch and dinner rushes,” Klein said.
That efficiency has generated increased interest throughout the industry. In August 2025, Hyphen closed a Series B funding round that included up to $10 million from Cava. Chipotle said it has invested a total of $25 million in Hyphen through its Cultivate Next venture fund through the third quarter of 2025.
The $25 million Series B round will help Hyphen scale its production and deployment in restaurants across the U.S. Its production will increase with Re:Build Manufacturing, a company based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Chipotle makeline script It is in San José for modification after a test in a restaurant. Cava will test and pilot its technology for a second production line to fulfill digital and takeout orders in the back of its kitchen in the future.
A finished burrito bowl assembled with automation technology from Chipotle and Hyphen.
Via Chipotle Mexican Grill
Hyphen's technology solves speed and labor issues, helping to automate part of the service process that can be repetitive and difficult to complete.
“Someone may sell the ingredients on top, while the rest happens below,” he said of the prep line, which relies on a series of robotic hands to prepare salads and bowls under a long table, out of public view, sending them to the line.
The makelines cost between $50,000 and $100,000 to purchase, and restaurant customers often see a return on their investment in less than a year, Klein said. They operate 95% of the time, but during the rare times they are down, workers can jump up to complete orders, the same way an escalator would become stairs, he said.
Another key feature is the reduction of food waste. The technology tracks ingredients “down to the gram,” Klein said.
“We are perfectly dividing each ingredient, we can help them save on food costs or at least reduce them in some way,” he said.
The idea for the company began when Klein and his co-founder Daniel Fukuba built a fully robotic food truck, which launched in Los Angeles three months before the pandemic began. They shifted gears to release Hyphen shortly after that.
“When the pandemic happened, we had to share that in another direction. Fortunately, we had been talking to other restaurant partners about licensing our technology to them, and we decided… it just made a lot more sense to help restaurants that already exist today,” Klein said.
Technological innovation is likely to remain a key trend in the restaurant sector after a brutal year for many of the industry leaders. Shares of Cava and Chipotle are down nearly 50% and 40% so far this year, respectively, after declines in key demographics, including younger consumers. Sweetgreen, another competitor in the healthy salads and bowls sector, is down almost 80% year over year.
sweet green sold its robotics unit, Spyce, to lunchtime platform Wonder earlier this year for $186.4 million. Sweetgreen had acquired Spyce to build its automated system. Infinite Kitchens, and will continue to use technology.
Klein said Hyphen is talking to major food service brands and providers for college campuses and office parks as it looks to not only evolve the manufacturing pipeline, but also provide data that comes from food preparation and distribution. The company intends to develop more software in the future, including tools for scheduling food preparation to be used in the back of the house.
One area that is not on the menu, at least for now, is the fast food sector.
“We're really trying to help people who have high variety or high customization in terms of what their guests are ordering, as well as high volume. So that's our attack zone,” he said.
