Ansā, a Tel Aviv-based builder of micro coffee roasters, has raised $9 million in funding to help the company roll out its technology into the US market, according to a release sent to The Spoon.
Unlike traditional coffee roasters, which use gas to heat the roaster chambers. The Ansā e23 micro roaster uses radio waves to heat the beans. Much like a microwave oven or newer solid-state cooking systems, this form of heating, known as dialectic heating, heats the coffee bean from core to shell.
According to the company, the system’s computer vision (provided via a built-in camera) coordinates roasting with precision application of the radio waves to transmit the energy to individual beans, creating a highly precise and homogeneously applied roast.
As automation and newer, cleaner technology enables more food processing to move closer to the point of consumption, coffee figures to be one of the leading categories in coming years. We’ve seen the success of electric-powered in-store roasters like other upstarts like Bellwether and some attempts at countertop home coffee roasters (mostly with success), but Ansā is the first to use electromagnetic heating for coffee roasting in office environments.
According to the company, they have secured commercial contracts in the US in cities such as Seattle, New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta and plan to use the funding to fund their rollout in the US.
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This post originally appeared on TechToday.