Fresco, the Irish smart kitchen platform formerly known as Drop, has announced $20m (€18.5m) in new finance from three appliance brands and existing investors.

Two of those brands are Instant Brands and  Vorwerk, while the company said the third brand will be announced later as part of a new partnership. All of the company’s existing venture investors also participated.

The company said that the funding will be used to build a “world-leading experience for the connected kitchen”.

Fresco said it plans to double headcount from 50 to 100 people over in the next two years. The recruitment drive will initially focus on product, engineering, design and security roles.

The Fresco Kitchen platform connects any compatible appliance, so that cooks can focus on preparing meals. The company has adopted the ‘connects with Fresco’ tag-line to certify appliances that can be controlled from smartphones, tablets, smart speakers, and smart home assistants.

In Association with

Consumers can use the Fresco app to guide their cooking to prepare better and more creative meals – especially when using partner appliances.

Fresco CEO Ben Harris commented: “We know that every kitchen has appliances from different brands. Now through this Fresco platform, our partners are forming alliances across the whole kitchen.

“Technology in this field is advancing at a lightning pace and we’re delighted to be at the heart of it, innovating and building solutions in our Dublin HQ, that will enable us to deliver on the promise of the smart kitchen.”

The business also has offices in San Francisco and Zaragoza.

Instant Brands makes the Instant Pot, while Vorwerk makes the €1,350 all-in-one multicooker Thermomix TM6.

“Instant Brands and Fresco are working together to develop innovative breakthroughs in the kitchen, and beyond,” said Ben Gadbois, CEO of Instant Brands. “This investment deepens our partnership further and supercharges these initiatives.”

Founded in 2012, Fresco initially developed a weighing scales that connected with an iPad to manage recipe ingredients. The venture then pivoted to developing operating system software that smart kitchen appliances can connect to.

Operating company Adaptics Ltd’s accounts filing discloses the bare minimum of information. Accumulated losses at the end of 2020 stood at €14.8m, after the annual trading loss was reduced to €1.7m from €4.7m the previous year.

Share capital is detailed at €580,000, though the balance sheet also shows €8m in ‘other undenominated capital’.

Year-end creditors of €8.9m included €8.5m owed to group undertakings. Adaptics Ltd is 100% owned by American company Drop Kitchen Inc.