In a difficult time for the restaurant industry, large chains like Chipotle And How are you are investing in automated makelines from the startup Hyphen.
The San Jose, California-based company aims to help restaurants achieve two key goals in a hyper-competitive environment: fast throughput and good customer service. The technology enables a less chaotic and more “elegant” experience for workers and guests, co-founder and CEO Stephen Klein told CNBC in an interview.
“We’re probably doing a bowl every 10 to 15 seconds. At peak flow, we usually have more capacity than they’re asking for, especially … for peak lunch and dinner times,” Klein said.
This efficiency has sparked increased interest throughout the industry. In August 2025, Hyphen closed a Series B funding round including up to $10 million from Cava. Chipotle said it has invested a total of $25 million in Hyphen through its Cultivate Next venture capital fund through the third quarter of 2025.
The $25 million Series B round will help Hyphen scale up production and roll it out to restaurants across the US. Its production will increase with Re:Build Manufacturing, a company based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Chipotle Hyphenated Makeline is in San Jose for modification after a restaurant test. Cava will test and pilot its technology for a second makeline to serve digital and takeout orders in the back of its kitchen in the future.
A finished burrito bowl assembled by automation technology from Chipotle and Hyphen.
Source: Chipotle Mexican Grill
Hyphen’s technology solves both a speed and labor problem, helping to automate a part of the service process that can be repetitive and difficult to complete.
“It’s possible that someone is selling ingredients on top, while the rest happens below,” he said of the makeline, which relies on a series of robotic hands to prepare salads and bowls under a long table, out of view of the audience, sending them down the row.
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 work 95% of the time, but during the rare moments when they are down, workers can step in to fulfill orders, the same way an escalator would turn into a staircase, he said.
Another key element is reducing food waste. The technology tracks ingredients “down to the gram,” Klein said.
“We portion out every ingredient perfectly, we’re able to help them save on food costs, or at least reduce food costs in some way,” he said.
The idea for the company came about when Klein and his co-founder Daniel Fukuba built a fully robotic food truck, launching in Los Angeles three months before the pandemic began. They shifted gears to launch Hyphen shortly after.
“When the pandemic hit, we kind of had to share this in a different direction. Luckily, we had been talking with other restaurant partners about licensing our technology to them, and we decided… it just made a lot more sense to help the restaurants that are already out there today,” Klein said.
Technological innovation will likely continue to be a key trend in the restaurant industry after a difficult year for many industry leaders. Shares of Cava and Chipotle are down nearly 50% and 40%, respectively, since the start of the year, after declines in key demographic groups, including younger consumers. Sweetgreen, another competitor in the healthy salad and bowl space, is down nearly 80% for the year.
Soft green sold its robotics unit, Spyce, to dining platform Wonder earlier this year for $186.4 million. Sweetgreen had acquired Spyce to build its automated system Infinite kitchens, and it will continue to use technology.
Klein said Hyphen is talking with major brands and food service providers for college campuses and office parks as it seeks to not only scale the manufacturing line but also provide data from food preparation and distribution. The company aims to develop more software in the future, including food preparation planning tools for use in the back of the house.
One area that is off the menu, at least for now, is the fast food sector.
“We’re really trying to help people who have a really big mix or a lot of customization in terms of what their guests order, as well as high volume. So that’s kind of our strike zone,” he said.
