In 2017, Raghav Gupta set out to solve a personal problem. He wanted easy access to homemade meals he grew up eating without having to cook, spend money on takeaways or hire a private chef. He turned to robotics and found startup Poha.
Former TechCrunch startup battlefield company Posha is building countertop robots that use computer vision to make meals. Users scroll through the list of recipes, select the recipe they need, add the appropriate amount of requested ingredients, and from there the machine will eat.
The process is designed to be customizable and generous, so Gupta told TechCrunch that the machine allows people to substitute and Posha works even when users don’t measure the ingredients perfectly.
“It’s like a food coffee machine,” Gupta said. “So, when you want to drink coffee, you choose to brew coffee in your coffee machine. You put beans, sugar and milk in different containers. Brew and drink coffee.
Coffee machines are not perfect with Poha, as coffee machines require a little more effort than coffee makers.
Posha does a fair amount of work by cooking these meals, but consumers still play an active role in shopping for ingredients and preparing everything that’s on their devices. Chopping in particular can take up a considerable amount of recipe cooking time.
Gupta agreed that some people are not going to go to a solution that requires some cooking yet. He said he is the most successful so far, a client who wants to cook two or six times a week anyway.
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“These people already spend an hour in the kitchen every day, what they eat, shopping for ingredients, cooking meals, [and] Gupta then cleaned it up and said, “I only spend about 10-20 minutes a day now, as they help me shave at least 70% of this time.”
Previously known as Nimble, Poha originally began as a robotic arm, Gupta said, but the company’s time in Bosch’s accelerator program encouraged them to change courses. They learned that consumers don’t want to move around their kitchens or what they don’t want to be difficult to clean. Since then, the company has been in close contact with its early customers.
“We have been very focused and very obsessed with our customers from day one,” Gupta said. “We don’t use Zendesk to chat with them. We have WhatsApp conversations with over 100 customers. Most of our customers know me personally. I moved to the US in the middle of the pandemic. That system cannot be scaled, but for now it clearly works in Posha.
Gupta said so far, Posha relies primarily on word-of-mouth marketing for its $1,750 consumer countertop devices. Posha recently raised a $8 million Series A round led by Accel, with participation from existing investors, including Xeed Ventures. Vinny Bansal, co-founder of Waterbridge Venture; Flipkart. Especially.
Gupta said Posha will use the funds to continue developing the product. In particular, the company wants to add recipe options, people suggest recipe ideas, generative AI wants to turn those ideas into instructions, and quickly add them to the device.
The company launched the Posha robot in January 2025, and has since sold out from its first batch.
“Microwaves, dishwashers, fridges, at one point, these devices were countertop devices,” Gupta said. “They became extremely essential over time in consumer homes, and builders have begun installing these devices in your home.
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