Circus SE, an AI robotics company specializing in autonomous kitchen systems, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Beijing University Food Raw Material Joint Procurement Centre.
This partnership aims to build and scale an autonomous food supply network using Circus Autonomy One (CA-1), a fully automated food production robot capable of ingredient dispensing, cooking, cleaning and packaging without human intervention.
Circus hopes to grow, scale CA-1 deployments in Beijing
The Beijing University Food Raw Material Joint Procurement Centre, established in 2001, is a centralized platform for the procurement of raw materials for university canteens, guided by the Ministry of Education and industry committees. Its objective is to guarantee food quality and safety, thereby enhancing the quality of life for teachers and students. The Centre serves over 90 universities and educational institutions in Beijing, providing millions of meals daily within a limited timeframe.
CA-1 minimizes production expenses and food wastage while upholding exceptional culinary and hygiene standards, all within a compact 20 square meters and without necessitating human involvement, according to the company. The Circus Group is developing a global network of these robots to provide balanced, cost-effective nutrition worldwide.
“The signing of this MoU represents a significant milestone for Circus and the future of food service autonomy globally,” said Nikolas Bullwinkel, CEO and founder of Circus Group. “We are honored about the opportunity to serve Beijing's students across educational institutions and faculties with our food service technology and offer a range of balanced meals to millions of bright minds while enhancing food safety and efficiency in university canteens with the implementation of this partnership. This agreement marks our entry into the Chinese market and underscores the immense potential of our technology to transform food service around the world.”
To ensure the availability and constant accessibility of high-quality meals for every student, the parties aim to establish an autonomous food supply system, run by CA-1 food production robots, enabling the on-demand production of over ten million meals daily across Beijing's educational institutions.
The collaboration between Circus and the Procurement Centre shall be carried out in multiple phases starting from the setup of joint test operations at universities to prepare for the broader market launch of CA-1 food production robots. From the start of this initial phase, Circus will receive exclusive market access.
“The partnership with the Circus Group represents a significant step forward in the development of an automated and highly efficient food supply system,” said Liu Zhigang, director of the Beijing University Food Raw Material Joint Procurement Centre. “Their robotics technology will provide our institutions with access to affordable, high-quality meals on-demand, enhancing the quality of life for both students and teachers at our facilities.”
The partnership aims to develop into a multi-staged integration of Circus’ robotics technology across 92 Beijing educational institutions with a total distribution of 5,400 CA-1 food production robots, reaching an estimated cumulative revenue potential in the low single-digit billion-euro range over the next several years. The planned network of robots will be capable of producing up to 4 billion meals annually.
In an additional defined national growth phase, the Procurement Centre shall further support the Circus Group in a nationwide rollout of the CA-1 food production robot, aimed at serving 4,000 educational institutions with a total of 60 million students.
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