Grote family office invests in Appetronix’s $10M+ Seed funding

Appetronix Inc., a Canadian food robotics company, has closed over $10 million in seed funding – including a $6 million “Seed Plus” round led by Jim Grote and the Grote family (founders of Donatos Pizza) via their family investment arm. The financing was co-led by Grote alongside AlleyCorp and will enable Appetronix to deploy its autonomous robotic kitchen systems in high-traffic venues, including airports, hospitals, and entertainment complexes. Appetronix (formerly SJW Robotics) develops intelligent kitchen robots that can portion, cook, plate, and even clean, aiming to improve consistency and efficiency in commercial kitchens. With this fresh capital, the startup will roll out several robotic kitchen units over the coming months, leveraging its partnership with the Donatos pizza chain (which has over 460 locations) to pilot and refine its technology.

About the Grote family office

The Grote family office – led by Jim Grote, who built Donatos Pizza into a successful franchise before selling it to McDonald’s and later reacquiring it – focuses on investments in food technology and restaurant innovation. By spearheading Appetronix’s funding, the Grote family is capitalizing on their deep industry expertise to support a robotics solution for the restaurant sector. The Grote family has a history of embracing automation in food service (Jim Grote famously invented the Peppamatic pepperoni slicer for Donatos), and their backing of Appetronix underscores the family office’s commitment to driving the next wave of efficiency in food preparation. This strategic investment not only provides Appetronix with growth capital but also connects the startup with the Grote family’s decades of operational knowledge in scaling food businesses.

Picture Source: A.C, Unsplash (November 10th, 2025)
Article Source: Finsmes (November 10th, 2025)