San Francisco physical AI company Chef Robotics on July 11, 2026 named Nicolas De Keijser as Vice President of Sales, capping a rapid commercial run that has taken the food-assembly robotics startup from a single pilot customer in 2022 to a portfolio of 15 mid-market and enterprise food manufacturers across North America and Europe.
A Sales Leader For The Next Growth Phase
De Keijser joins Chef Robotics after a decade of go-to-market leadership across industrial technology, most recently as a global GTM leader for automation deployments. Chef Robotics CEO and founder Rajat Bhageria said the appointment is aligned with the company's push from lighthouse deployments to line-side standard operating equipment.
The company operates a Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) model that bundles hardware, ChefOS updates, 24/7 monitoring, field service and a dedicated customer success manager into a per-line lease, letting food manufacturers deploy AI-powered automation without capital expenditure.
ChefOS: Physical AI Trained For Food Variability
Traditional automation — multi-head dispensers, vibratory feeders and volumetric fill dispensers — has struggled with the natural variability of food ingredients, frequent changeovers and high-mix production. Chef Robotics' answer is ChefOS, a physical AI operating system that lets its robots portion mixed vegetables, pulled meats, leafy greens and discrete items into trays, wraps, burritos and pizza bases with human-flexible dexterity.
Chef Robotics' robotic module C-001748 is NSF-certified under NSF/ANSI 169 for special purpose food equipment, a strict food-safety and cleanability standard that has cleared the platform for use at customers including Amy's Kitchen, Cafe Spice, Sunbasket, Chef Bombay, gategroup and San Francisco nonprofit Project Open Hand.
98 Million Servings And Counting
The company reports that its robots have produced more than 98 million servings in production to date. Customers cite 2–3x throughput, 88% reductions in food giveaway and 60% higher labour productivity — critical metrics for a US food manufacturing industry that the company says faces 1.14 million unfilled jobs today and 3.1 million by 2030 amid staff turnover rates approaching 300%.
Expanding From Meal Assembly To Component Assembly
The VP Sales appointment follows Chef Robotics' May 2026 expansion into component assembly for CPG manufacturing, including shelf-stable instant noodles, ramen bowls and multi-compartment trays, and a bi-manual physical AI system for prep-table assembly powered by a food foundation model. The company joins a wave of physical AI commercial deployments this month, including HelloFresh's fivefold AMR expansion with Locus Robotics and Kawasaki Robotics and Dexterity's Mech humanoids.
Reporting based on coverage from Chef Robotics, Business Wire, RoboticsTomorrow, Automation World and TechCrunch.