upliance.ai is on a mission to make cooking easy for everyone by leveraging large language models for recipe generation via its Cooking Assistant.
The allure of Korean Bibimbaps featured on Netflix’s K-Dramas and Instagram food reels has inspired many to revolutionise their kitchens in pursuit of restaurant-quality home-cooked meals. After spending hours scrolling for the perfect recipe and ensuring the ingredients are in the correct proportion, the reality of a sink full of dishes often dampens these ambitious plans.
IIT Bombay alumni, Mahek Mody and Mohit Sharma, have developed a solution to alleviate these woes with upliance.ai’s Cooking Assistant, which merges technology with the culinary arts, enhancing the cooking experience through artificial intelligence. Designed, marketed, and sold by the startup for ₹29,999, specifically for Indian kitchens, the Smart Cooking Jar features IP54 water and masala resistance, safety sensors, and automatic heat cutoff mechanisms for functions like automated cutting, chopping, stirring, and cooking.
The smart jar can perform almost 16 cooking functions with a single blade, equipped with a thermal sensor and a heating element. Mody explains, “We have a single blade with slightly different contours for various cuts. The control over the blade allows it to perform multiple types of cuts without the need to switch blades for different tasks. The thermal sensor is a crucial part of our patented method for accurately predicting sauce thickness and cooking progress. We also harness data from blade force and machine vibrations during cutting and cooking to optimise results. Our LLM rapidly provides cooking recommendations, enabling swift decision-making in the kitchen.”
Incorporating ChatGPT into their systems, upliance.ai offers recipe suggestions and cooking tips. The Cooking Assistant, based on open source Android for its high-quality user interface, can answer any recipe-related queries. The startup is also exploring integrations with platforms like Google Assistant for seamless interactions.
Mody adds, “Currently, users can sync their mobile phones with the appliance, allowing it to suggest recipes based on available ingredients. They can specify if they have some ingredients and need to order the rest, with options to order directly through our platform or via external online grocery delivery services.”
The startup plans to expand the technology to include automatic ingredient ordering and fostering community interactions among users cooking similar dishes simultaneously, facilitating knowledge sharing.
The startup recently secured a ₹340 million seed round at a valuation of ₹1.43 billion, led by Khosla Ventures. Other prominent investors include Rainmatter, Draper Associates, and Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs India. The startup has partnered with external contract manufacturers like Karkhana.io and Tescom.
Mody believes that modern home appliance companies must not operate in isolation. “We rely on various partners to bring our products to market. By collaborating with contract manufacturers, we avoid large investments in factory setups. We also work with SaaS companies for efficient operations and collaborate with creators to develop recipes that align with our goals. Looking forward, we are exploring additional partnerships to develop our products without significant upfront investments in tooling and factories.”
