Rotimatic is an automated kitchen appliance that makes

flatbread A flatbread is bread made usually with flour; water, milk, yogurt, or other liquid; and salt, and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are Unleavened bread, unleavened, although some are leavened, such as pita bread. A Se ...

. It was invented by Indian-origin couple Pranoti Nagarkar and Rishi Israni in 2008. It was initially planned to be launched in 2012 but started taking USA pre-orders in 2014 with an initial deposit for $59 towards the initial price of $699. It was first shipped in 2016, and is currently available in twenty markets. As of May 2018 it had sold 10,000 units and as of October 2018 it has generated a revenue of US$40 million. Across all its units it had made 3 million rotis by July 2017 and 10 million rotis by January 2018.

History

Pranoti Nagarkar and Rishi Israni established their company ZImplistic Pte Ltd,. in Singapore with Rotimatic as their flagship product. The pre-order campaign started in 2014 and the product was delivered in 2016 and 2017 in Singapore and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

respectively. As of April 2018, it is available in a total of 20 markets including the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, and the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. As of October 2020, Zimplistic, has been acquired by Light Ray Holdings, a special-purpose vehicle incorporated in the

British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

. As of April 2021, more than 70,000 Rotimatics have been sold across 20 countries (45,000 units in the U.S.)

Inventor/Founder

Rotimatic was invented by Indian-born Pranoti Nagarkar and Rishi Israni. Nagarkar is a

mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations o ...

and Israni studied computer science. They are the Co-Founder of Zimplistic Pte Ltd., which was incorporated in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

in 2008. Rotimatic is the flagship product of their company. They are both alumni of

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

. They have more than 35 patents under their belt.

Investment

By April 2018, Zimplistic, had raised around US$45 million through four rounds of venture funding. According to Zimplistic, Rotimatic generated a revenue of US$40 million in the fiscal year 2017-2018 by selling nearly 40,000 machines, with pre-order sales generating US$5 million.

Concept and design

To make roti (or other types of flatbread such as tortillas and puris), the user adds portions of flour, water, oil, and any additional ingredients into designated compartments to top up pre stored containers if needed. After selecting the thickness, softness, and 1 or 2 drops of oil, the user presses a button, and the machine then makes dough, flattens it, and cooks the roti in 90 seconds. Rotimatic can bake around 20 rotis starting from full compartments. Rotimatic uses machine learning so each machine takes some time to make good bread; they are also connected to the internet for software upgrades. It takes about a minute to make one roti after the machine has been fully heated up which takes more than five minutes. It uses around 1800 watts of power, weighs around 18 kilograms, measures 16 by 16 inches, has 15 sensors, 10 motors, and 300 parts. The worldwide retail price of Rotimatic as of April 2018 is US$999; a high end

bread machine A bread making machine or breadmaker or bread maker is a home appliance for baking bread. It consists of a bread pan (or "tin"), at the bottom of which are one or more built-in paddles, mounted in the center of a small special-purpose oven. The ...

cost around $170 at that time. Rotimatic is manufactured in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. The Rotimatic has undergone three design revisions: # 2012 - Original design # 2018 - The flour container was redesigned to widen the bottom opening to prevent clogging of the flour from steam backdrafts # 2023 - Rotimatic Plus was launched at a price of $1,699. The key difference is a rubber belt drive replacing the metallic chain which reduces the operating noise while flattening and cooking the rotis. With the launch of the Plus model, the original model was discontinued in 2024. Around 2019 there were reports of Rotimatic launching a slimmed down smaller version targeted towards price sensitive markets like India for under ₹40,000.

Reception

Mashable Mashable is a Online newspaper, news website, digital media platform and entertainment company founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005. History Mashable was founded by Pete Cashmore while living in Aberdeen, Scotland, in July 2004. Early iterations o ...

called Rotimatic the first robotic roti maker. It further added that Zimplistic claims that one Rotimatic roti costs roughly five cents. A store-bought roti would cost around 40 to 50 cents. Engadget referenced it as "the world's most expensive flatbread maker". Customers have expressed mixed reactions with many loving it while others have trouble with reliability, consistency and expensive repairs leading to a used secondary market for these devices. There has been concern that the Rotimatic only supports the legacy 2.4Ghz 802.11b standard making WiFi connectivity problematic for many users.

Pricing

Awards and recognition

* Best Kitchen Gadget by CES in 2016 * Best Consumer IoT Solution at 2020 IoT World Awards * Open category winner at Start-Up@Singapore 2009

References

External links

*{{Official Consumer electronics