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WI Harper Group | April 25, 2022 | Source: PR Newswire
Fresco (formerly Drop), a smart kitchen technology platform has raised $20M in a Series B funding round led by three international appliance brands: Instant Brands, Vorwerk, and a third that will be announced later as part of a new partnership. WI Harper initially invested in Fresco’s Series Pre-A in 2014.
The Fresco KitchenOS platform is designed to facilitate the transition to that future for both appliance makers and users. Fresco connects any compatible appliance–across brands–so that cooks can focus on preparing meals. The company has adopted the “connects with Fresco” brand to certify appliances that can be controlled from smartphones, tablets, smart speakers, and smart home assistants. Consumers can use the Fresco app to guide their cooking to prepare better and more creative meals.
“We know that every kitchen has appliances from different brands,” said Fresco Co-Founder and CEO Ben Harris in a statement. “Now through this Fresco platform, our partners are forming alliances across the whole kitchen, enabling the promise of the smart kitchen. To our appliance partners, Fresco provides end-to-end solutions to make any appliance smart: firmware; IoT modules; cloud services; and apps that pull it all together. Combined with the Fresco app, our step-by-step smart recipes inspire and guide home cooks to perfect results.”
Future partners will also be given the opportunity to invest in Fresco. The first cohort of appliance partners to invest includes leading appliance brands: Instant Brands, maker of the iconic Instant Pot; Vorwerk, the company behind fan-favorite, all-in-one multicooker Thermomix TM6; and a third major appliance manufacturer to be announced later in the year. These preeminent appliance manufacturers are investing in the Fresco KitchenOS because they believe the company is positioned to make the promise of the smart kitchen a reality.
Fresco will use the investment proceeds for working capital to expand its workforce and invest in improvement in its digital platform and related applications.
| About WI Harper Group
WI Harper is a pioneer and leading cross-border venture capital firm investing in early and expansion stage companies globally. With offices in San Francisco, Beijing, and Taipei, the firm actively oversees more than $1 billion in assets under management. Since inception nearly three decades ago, WI Harper has invested in over 400 startups and has successfully experienced more than 100 IPO and M&A exits.
We look for innovative companies and visionary founders in healthcare, technology and sustainability fields where there are high synergies and meaningful value added cross selling opportunities. While our healthcare team is presently honing on bioinformatics and digital biology, our technology team is focused blockchain, big data, analytics, artificial intelligence, AR/VR, IoT, robotics, drones, autonomous driving, as well as digital media and green energy projects.
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