Yummy Future
YC S19Champaign, US · Founded 2018 · 7 employees · Hiring · 4 known investors
Yummy Future builds automated robotic café systems and software for beverage service in public venues. The company operates kiosks that produce specialty drinks with consistent quality at high throughput, targeting locations like office buildings, campuses, and transit hubs.
Also known as Yummy Future Inc. · Yummy Future Bay · Yummy Future Matcha House
Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (S19)
Yummy Future was founded in 2018 by Jack Cui and Garrett Yan.
Investors · 4
The YC application· Summer 2019 batch
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Yummy Future develops a robotic platform for the food and beverage industry, designing, engineering and operating the hardware, software and store playbook end to end. Its units prepare espresso drinks, cold brew, tea and specialty beverages from a 24-SKU menu, with recipe-versioned production in which dose, pressure and yield are logged per cup. A full drink cycle runs about 38 seconds, covering order routing, on-demand conical burr grinding and dosing to a stated ±0.004 oz tolerance, pressure-profiled extraction to 9 bar via a SCARA arm, and milk texturing or ice dosing before delivery to a pickup shelf.
The product line comprises three units on one platform. Future Bar is a counter-top robotic barista that drops onto an existing counter and runs on a standard outlet, rated at 10–15 drinks per hour and roughly 150 drinks daily, aimed at small cafés and satellite floors. Future Kiosk is a standalone, self-contained unit with integrated water, waste and a customer-facing screen, positioned for offices of 300–1,500 headcount, rated at 10–15 drinks per hour with a surge mode up to 30 per hour and a 60–350 daily range. Future Max is a configurable enterprise platform built around a single SCARA arm scaled across 2, 4 or 6+ stations, shipping in Lobby, HQ and Campus configurations with throughput up to 80 drinks per hour. Installations are quoted at an eight-week timeline, with one- to three-year warranties by tier and 24/7 telemetry included.
Customer-facing channels include in-store screens and an iOS and Android app supporting order-ahead pickup, loyalty, gift balances, Apple Pay and live order tracking, plus bulk gift codes and monthly allowances for offices and co-working spaces, event bookings and off-site catering.
Business model
Yummy Future offers three commercial paths: a franchise or rev-share partnership in which it supplies brand, playbook, supply chain and operations support; outright purchase or lease of a unit that the buyer brands and owns, with software and telemetry included; and a host model in which Yummy Future owns and services the machine at a venue that provides space and power, with revenue split between the parties. The company also operates its own stores.
Revenue comes from beverage sales at company-operated stores and from unit sales, leases, franchise or rev-share partnerships, and revenue-share hosting arrangements, alongside app, gift card and corporate catering channels.
Traction
The website reports three live stores, more than 240,000 cups served to date, 25+ non-binding letters of intent, and three consecutive months of month-over-month revenue growth in Q1 2026. It cites investor backing from Y Combinator, Soma Capital, Asymmetry Ventures and Trevor Blackwell, and points to verified Google and Yelp customer reviews of its Palo Alto store.
Latest developments
The Champaign location was relaunched as a dedicated matcha shop in under one week on the same robotic platform, and the company reports three consecutive months of month-over-month revenue growth in Q1 2026 with further stores in build. It references a Form C filing containing full disclosures.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, risks & controversies
Market position
Yummy Future positions itself as the backend of the beverage industry — a brand-agnostic robotic platform that partners can operate under their own brand — rather than as a coffee chain, citing its one-week conversion of the Champaign store from coffee to matcha on unchanged hardware and software as evidence.
Differentiation claims center on barista-grade repeatability through per-cup logging of dose, pressure and yield, unattended operation with no closing shifts, a single platform spanning counter-top to multi-station enterprise throughput of up to 80 drinks per hour, and category flexibility demonstrated by relaunching a coffee store as a matcha shop in under a week without hardware or software changes.
Technology
The system centers on a SCARA robotic arm coordinating grinding, dosing, tamping and extraction. Recipes are version-controlled, with dose weighed to ±0.004 oz (also stated as ±0.1G dose tolerance), tamp force logged per cup, extraction pressure profiled to 9 bar and yield monitored against a target ratio. Cleaning is automated on the counter-top unit, and units include 24/7 telemetry; the standalone kiosk integrates water and waste handling and a customer screen.
Go-to-market
The company markets through its own flagship stores, direct requests for quotes and pricing, letters of intent from prospective franchise partners, an operator deck and intro calls, and consumer channels including an app, gift cards, event bookings and catering. It states that its 240,000+ cups served were achieved with zero marketing spend and reports 25+ non-binding LOIs.
Offices of roughly 300–1,500 headcount, lobbies, corporate headquarters, campuses, transit locations, gyms and hotels, small and medium café operators and satellite floors, plus prospective franchisees and unit owners, and retail consumers at its own stores.
Geography
Three live locations across two US markets: Yummy Future Bay at 170 University Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94301 (the flagship); Yummy Future Matcha House at 401 E Green St, Suite B, Champaign, IL 61820 in Campustown; and Yummy Future Original at 609 E Green St, Champaign, IL. Additional sites are described as in build.
Risks & controversies
The company notes that past performance does not guarantee future results and directs investors to its Form C filing for full disclosures; letters of intent from prospective partners are described as non-binding.
Compiled by commissioned research from 1 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Competitors · 6
by search overlap
Companies competing with Yummy Future for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
Timeline · 2
launches, deals, and filingsThe company converted its Champaign store into a matcha-focused shop in under one week using the same robotic hardware and software, presented as evidence of a brand-agnostic platform rather than a single-category coffee chain.
The website states that full disclosures relating to its performance claims are contained in the company's Form C filing.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 1
primary sources listed
- Yummy Futureyummy-future.com · web
1 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Yummy Future do?
- Yummy Future builds and operates robotic café units that make espresso, cold brew and tea drinks for offices, lobbies and campuses.
- Who founded Yummy Future?
- Yummy Future was founded by Jack Cui, Garrett Yan in 2018.
- Who are Yummy Future's investors?
- Yummy Future's investors include Founders, Knockout Capital, Y Combinator, Soma Capital.
- Where is Yummy Future headquartered?
- Yummy Future is headquartered in Champaign, US.