THE START-UP TECH REVIEW — Zimplistic’s Rotimatic
Our Start-Up Tech Review series is back. This time trying out Zimplistic’s automatic roti making machine: the Rotimatic! The Rotimatic is the world’s first fully automatic roti and flatbread making solution. Now healthy homemade fresh rotis are available at a touch of a button. With some flour, oil and water, the machine transforms them into fresh piping hot Rotis, in a matter of minutes! Our team decided to try out this machine to see if it was really that simple to whip up delicious rotis.
Hearing the words simple, automatic and quick with reference to making roti might sound to you as surreal as it would be for a person living many years ago. Technology is gradually revolutionising how you cook, and in today’s context, how you make your flatbread. Yup, that’s right! There is a robotic roti-making machine on the market today and our team is out to test it!
For many, enjoying rotis with some daal or chicken curry is much more desired than actually spending the effort to make the roti. I mean the dreadful process of measuring, mixing, kneading and doing the dishes is both tiring and time-consuming. And for amateurs (like us), getting the perfect thickness and crispiness of the bread is a challenge itself. And not to mention: getting the perfectly shaped roti is near impossible.
Oh, how did we know? We tried making our own rotis the 2000-and late way. And let’s put it like this: The traditional process was everything but simple, automatic and quick (and the result wasn’t instagrammable, at all!).
So, when we heard the sentence “Now healthy homemade fresh rotis are available at a touch of a button,” and got to know that the machine is revolutionising the process of roti making to become as hassle free as possible had just arrived at BLOCK71 SINGAPORE, we just had to try it.
The story of this game-changing (or rather, kitchen-changing) machine started back in 2009, when Pranoti Nagarkar, a mechanical engineer from the National University of Singapore, won the Singapore Start-Up competition for her automatic roti-maker prototype.
Pranoti and her husband, Rishi Israni who later on joined her, co-founded the product design start-up — Zimplistic, with the aim of providing the world with intelligent kitchen appliances. NUS Enterprise has supported Zimplistic’s journey from its inception, incubating the company in its Prince George’s Park incubator and then at BLOCK71.
After working on this invention for eight years, the couple finally released the revolutionary product Rotimatic. The Rotimatic video went viral on YouTube, amassing over 2.5 million views and converting into US$5 million in pre-sales within a week of its initial launch.
The start-up has successfully raised US$3 million in a Series A round from private investors, followed by a US$11.5 million Series B from investors including NSI Ventures and Robert Bosch Venture Capital. And they are also looking into the production of other flatbreads such as tortillas, wraps, and gluten-free verticals in future.
THE PRODUCT:
The machine (the size of a microwave) arrived in the elegant box that can be seen below. It was aesthetically elegant and neatly designed to fit in almost any kitchen.
The Rotimatic is a robotic kitchen appliance fully automating the process of roti making. It is the world’s first complete roti making machine.
The machine does everything from mixing the ingredients to serving you a perfectly round roti within 90 seconds.
Being a smart appliance, the machine connects via Wifi to a phone app which enables it to regularly update in accordance to software upgrades. Today, only rotis are available, but we will expect the machine to be able to produce other types of roti in the future.
TECHNICAL SPECS:
Weight: approx. 20 kgs
Measurements: 40cm (width) x 40cm (length) x 32 cm (height)
Price: USD 999
USING THE PRODUCT:
- Load the ingredients: Water, oil and whole wheat flour.
- Select the number of rotis and decide what thickness, roast level and amount of oil you prefer.
- Press play.
- Enjoy!
Watch us test the Rotimatic here.
THE TEST:
Okay, so we made one roti by one roti……only then we realised that the Rotimatic actually can make 16 rotis before you have to reload the ingredients. So do we really have to tell you how many rotis we ate this day?
The rotis were best enjoyed with chicken curry, fish curry, daal and finally with some Nutella. And yes, all of these combinations were awesome!
VERDICT:
The rotis came out perfect. The only downside was that the machine needed to heat up for some minutes before we could do anything. But hey, waiting a few minutes is much better than the measuring, mixing, kneading, heating pans, frying for many minutes, doing the dishes only to enjoy your rotis when you are all exhausted.
There is no doubt that the Rotimatic is a real time-saver. And to our advantage, you don’t need to be a good chef to enjoy good rotis anymore. All you have to do is press a button (literally).
The simplification of a process that otherwise is very time consuming and quite complex is what really blew our minds. The machine was really easy to both use and clean, and its looks really appealing. (Goodbye, oily fingers!)
Another really convenient feature was that the machine tells you when it needs to be refilled with ingredients and when it needs cleaning.
With Rotimatic, parents can now spend time with their children while waiting for the rotis to take shape, hosts will never have to serve shapeless rotis again and finally, anyone can make and enjoy perfect rotis every day. What can we say about this product except that it is amazing?
To get your hands on this super machine and to be able to enjoy amazing rotis anytime, do check out Zimplistic’s Rotimatic machine here. And for amazing roti recipes check out their blog.
Are you an entrepreneur working on a cool product and looking for more than just a co-working space ? Do apply for a hotdesk here and become part of the exciting community that we offer at BLOCK71 SINGAPORE.
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