The people
What they build
Open roles via the TechTO Job Board
Working at Appetronix
Browse open roles across the community on the TechTO Job Board — Canada’s most connected tech network. Appetronix’s roles show up here whenever they post.
Open roles on the TechTO Job Board ↗Or their own careers page: appetronix.com/careers ↗Jobs live on jobs.techto.org — the only structured source. We link to it rather than scraping career sites, so the board is always the source of truth.
On the TechTO stage
From Wall Street to Food Robots: Building the Autonomous Restaurant
Watch on YouTube ↗Building Without Permission
Watch on YouTube ↗Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Appetronix ↗
About
Appetronix makes a self-contained robotic kitchen that can be dropped into an airport, hospital, university or stadium and run without on-site employees, producing a made-to-order meal in roughly four minutes. Nipun Sharma, from a fourth-generation food family and a former investment banker, founded the company in London, Ontario in 2020 under the name SJW Robotics. Its commercial break came through the Grote family, who founded the Ohio pizza chain Donatos: they invested and then became the customer, with the first fully autonomous Donatos location opening at John Glenn Columbus International Airport in June 2025. Total seed funding passed $12 million USD, with AlleyCorp, the Grote family, N49P Ventures and the chef Tom Colicchio named as investors. In late March 2026 Appetronix acquired the assets of Cibotica, which had built an automated bowl and salad assembly system and an ingredient dispensing platform, moving the company beyond pizza into multi-cuisine. On the TechTO stage in May 2026 Sharma framed the whole thing against Zume Pizza, which raised hundreds of millions and never got to market, and argued that first-generation food robotics got the capital model backwards.
Backers
AlleyCorp, the Grote family who founded Donatos, N49P Ventures and chef Tom Colicchio, across seed rounds totalling more than $12 million USD.
More from TechTO ×6
Quick answers
What does Appetronix build?
A fully autonomous restaurant: a robotic kitchen that takes an order and produces a cooked meal in about four minutes with nobody working on site. It is designed to be installed in high-traffic venues such as airports, hospitals, universities and stadiums.
Who founded Appetronix and when?
Nipun Sharma, in 2020, originally under the name SJW Robotics. He comes from a fourth-generation food family and worked in investment banking before starting the company.
Who has invested in Appetronix?
AlleyCorp of New York, the Grote family who founded Donatos Pizza, Toronto's N49P Ventures and the chef Tom Colicchio, in seed rounds totalling more than $12 million USD.
Where does Appetronix operate?
It is headquartered in London, Ontario. Its first fully autonomous location, run with Donatos, opened at John Glenn Columbus International Airport in June 2025. In March 2026 it acquired the assets of Cibotica, whose bowl and salad robotics had been deployed with the Seattle chain Moto Pizza.