About us

Who we are and what we do

We are unconventional explorers, chaotic creatives and crazy believers with resilient yet realistic passions to combine food, tech and design in order to help people eat healthier. We love what we do and we always strive to make our world a better place, one freshly printed meal and snack at a time. We are Natural Machines, the makers of Foodini. Real food, freshly printed.

AboutUs Team Emilio Sepulveda Cofounder Natural Machines

Emilio Sepulveda

CO-FOUNDER & CEO

Emilio loves exploring alternate applications for technology besides the original use – that partially explains why he thought 3D printing could be applied to food. He is concerned about the health of people in general, and always envisioned that creating robots could help humans have a better lifestyle.

AboutUs Team Lynette Kucsma Cofounder Natural Machines

Lynette Kucsma

CO-FOUNDER & CMO

Lynette is passionate about health, technology, and ‘doing the right thing’ and she believes that eating healthy improves people physically, emotionally, and intellectually – and thus, quality of life is improved. She is honoured to be named by CNN as one of only seven 'tech superheroes' to watch.

THE STORY OF FOODINI

Natural Machines and Foodini: It all started with a conversation with a friend, as the idea for many other companies start. This friend owned a vegan bakery producing sweet goods and was expanding the business outside of the country of origin. But there was a problem in the costs of doing so: 80% of product costs were tied to manufacturing and distribution, while raw ingredients and labor accounted for only 20%. Rather than manufacturing in a central location and shipping out the final product, the idea surfaced that ideally a mini-manufacturing kitchen appliance

could exist in many individual locations, thus slashing the costs of central manufacturing and distribution, while minimizing the complexity of making the goods.

A 3D printer is a mini-manufacturing device. The premise of all 3D printers is the user becomes the manufacturer, maker, creator. We took it a step further and designed a 3D food printer made exclusively to work with food, constructed of food-grade, food-safe materials. Foodini was born under the Natural Machines company name.

That kicked off the idea. But the Natural Machines co-founders – Emilio and Lynette – both have strong passions around healthy eating. That meant Natural Machines couldn’t focus only on bakery sweet goods. And both believe in the macro-trends towards healthy food: people want to know what they are eating, what exactly is in their foods, and where those foods are coming from.

Food tech – including Foodini – needs to accommodate what your vision of a healthy diet is, because everyone’s personal vision can be different; there is no one food regime that is right for every person. That’s one reason we do NOT force people to buy pre-filled food capsules to use Foodini. You control the foods used with Foodini. Want to use fresh foods? We welcome it: Foodini ships with empty stainless steel food capsules that you can fill with your own fresh ingredients.

3D food printing really isn't that crazy of an idea after all. Because if you eat anything from a food manufacturer - like packaged food you buy in a supermarket - then you practically are already eating 3D printed food: a food manufacturer takes food, pushes it through machines, shapes it, forms it... we’ve taken that same concept and shrunk the large food manufacturing facility down to a stylish appliance for your kitchen counter. But the big difference is we allow you to use your own fresh ingredients to print.

We are proud to offer you Foodini – a 3D food printer. Over the years since forming in 2012, we’ve been honored to have received over 40 awards and recognitions, inclusive of being named as: an incredible food innovation that will change lives; 1 of the 10 best 3D printers; a trailblazer in the industry; a top emerging health & wellness startup; a food technology startup to watch, and a top 10 food innovation that will change the world.

People are using Foodini across the world – individuals and companies from over 90 countries have reached out to us. Customers from many different industries are now using Foodini: restaurants, food service providers, food manufacturers, education, research, nutrition and health companies.

We are unconventional explorers, chaotic creatives and crazy believers with resilient yet realistic passions to combine food, tech and design in order to help people eat healthier. We love what we do and we always strive to “do the right thing”... one freshly printed meal and snack at a time.

We are Natural Machines, the makers of Foodini: this is real food, 3D printed.

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Partners

Supporters

AboutUs Supporter Closed Loop

Closed Loop Partners invests in sustainable consumer goods, advanced recycling technologies and the development of the circular economy.

AboutUs Supporter EU

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 811644 through the SME Instrument.

The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) enables investments in a smarter, greener, more connected and more social Europe that is closer to its citizens.

EIT Food is Europe’s leading food innovation initiative, working to make the food system more sustainable, healthy and trusted.

Natural Machines is a proud member of the EIT Food RisingFoodStars Association. We're part of the first cohort, from 2016.

AboutUs Supporter CDTI

The Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) promotes innovation and technological development of Spanish companies with national and international projects.

AboutUs Supporter Avancsa

AVANÇSA, an entity of the Generalitat de Catalunya, promotes and develops sustainable companies that provide added value and differentiation.

AboutUs Supporter Enisa

ENISA (Empresa Nacional de Innovación, SME, SA) is actively involved in promoting and financing viable and innovative SME business projects.

Red.es is the public business entity attached to the Ministry of Economy and Business that is in charge of driving the digital transformation in Spain.

European Union - European Regional Development Fund. “A way of making Europe.” This project has received funding from the red.es C007/20-ED research & innovation program under project 2020/0720/00100785.

Within the framework of the Recovery Plan for Europe (Next Generation EU), Catalonia aims to promote the country to become greener, more digital and more resilient.

The Public Employment Service of Catalonia (SOC) promotes stable and quality employment for people and companies in Catalonia.

Administration of the Government of Catalonia.

InvestHorizon is a programme financed by the European Commission, in association with Eureka, to facilitate series A funding for selected deep tech companies.

TechShare, Euronext’s dedicated pre-IPO programme for European Tech companies, prepares companies considering capital markets for the next stage of growth.

Active Consortium Projects

ONCOFOOD

Funded by EIT Food

New innovative food solutions for cancer patients considering nutritional requirements and sensory alterations, promoting the pleasure of eating and preventing malnutrition.

Future Kitchen

Funded by EIT Food

A series of infotaining VR videos published on Food Unfolded, encouraging younger generations to act in favour of food sustainability and embrace healthier nutrition.

TecFood

Funded by CDTI

Aims to achieve new technologically advanced and nutritionally balanced food products in innovative formats.

Personalized Care Nutrition

With Fundació Althaia

Creating personalized and balanced diets for the elderly in dependent environments.

GoIndependent

With RISE and Fujita Health University

Innovative solutions for senior independence: developing energy rich and nutritious, succulent food which is pleasant to chew, safe to swallow, and retains oral functions.

3DPERFIT

Funded by Eureka Eurostars

3D printing food for personalised sport nutrition.

3DTIRAMISU

Funded by AMable

The internationalization of a offering personalizing 3D printed Tiramisù - the most popular Italian dessert.

On Stage at Events

Food Pepper

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

We are incredibly honoured that Foodini and Natural Machines have been named as the recipient of over 40 awards and recognitions over the years. Some examples:

Named as an incredible food innovation that will change lives.

Named as an incredible food innovation that will change lives.

One of the 10 best 3D printers.

One of the 10 best 3D printers.

Regarded as a trailblazer in the industry.

Regarded as a trailblazer in the industry.

Top emerging health & wellness startup.

Top emerging health & wellness startup.

Food technology startup to watch.

Food technology startup to watch.

A Top 10 food innovation that will change the world.

A Top 10 food innovation that will change the world.

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