SINGAPORE, Oct 26 — If you had missed out on ordering a Rotimatic, rejoice, because you can now get your hands on the coveted roti-making machine.
Two years after pre-orders for its first batch of units opened up to the United States and Singapore markets — and were snapped up quickly — a second pre-order for Rotimatic has been made available specifically for Singapore customers since last Friday.
Rotimatic is a robot developed by Zimplistic, which was founded by Singaporean couple Pranoti Nagarkar Israni and Rishi Israni. When Zimplistic launched its first batch of pre-orders in 2014, 8,000 orders streamed in within just five days.
However, the company only started shipping out its units from the first order in June this year, and just completed shipping in August.
The machine entralled many with its ability to make fresh, hot and puffy rotis fuss-free and speedily — one every 90 seconds, in fact — simply by the user adding water, oil and flour.
The user just has to select how many rotis they want, and press a button after adding the ingredients.
Priced at US$999 (RM4,149), it can make 30 rotis in less than an hour.
Rotimatic even caught the attention of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who cited it as one of the success stories from start-up hub Block 71 in Ayer Rajah Crescent when he was speaking about promoting entrepreneurship during the National Day Rally this year.
According to Zimplistic, there are some 350,000 people in total who have signed up for their waiting list so far.
The overwhelming response has been unexpected, and the couple said they want to cater to their home market this time round.
To get your hands on one, register on the waitlist on their website (www.rotimatic.com). You’ll receive an invite via email to order your Rotimatic set.
“The reception (in Singapore) has been great. The customers truly appreciate the scale of the task that we have taken on, and have been extremely supportive in the process,” said Nagarkar, 34.
Thankfully, people here do not have to wait too long. The founders say orders are expected to start shipping out in the first quarter of next year.
Meeting a need
The idea behind Rotimatic emerged when Nagarkar recognised how Indian women and mothers are expected to produce hot food for dinner before their families come home.
Making chapatis is usually a time-consuming and tedious task, and that soon got her thinking of developing an automatic roti-maker to help busy working women.
Making the roti healthy was another consideration of hers.
Nagarkar felt that she could tackle the issue with the skills she acquired in her job as a product design engineer.
In 2008, she quit her job and started Zimplistic with her husband, Israni, who has a background in computer science.
However, in order to build upon her ideas, both Nagarkar and Israni knew that it would be no simple task.
They had to engineer technology from scratch without any precedent to follow or improve upon. On top of that, they had to live on minimum wage as they faced constant research and development (R&D) and financial demands with an innovation this complex.
Eventually, after gaining up to 35 patents across multiple countries and investing all her personal savings, Rotimatic came to fruition.
Tanaz Suresh, 45, who had tried out the product before it launched, said she used to make rotis by hand.
A friend working in Zimplistic then asked her to try the machine out. After using it for a couple of days, Suresh — a mother of two children aged 12 and 23 — discovered a big change in her children’s routine.
“She (her daughter) has started taking rotis even in the tiffin (for a light midday luncheon),” she said.
“For any mother, it’s like heaven when their kid eats rotis for breakfast, takes them in the tiffin for lunch, and then for dinner,” she added.
Senior analyst Nicola Mok, who bought a set, has also started using it four times a week because she feels that fresh, whole-wheat roti is a healthier alternative to store-bought bread or rice.
The 34-year-old added: “It is a yummy and healthy lifestyle changer. Now, whenever we eat Indian food at home, we can have rotis instead of rice.”
Mok says while the machine does make quite an audible noise while in operation, the aroma of the rotis getting cooked makes up for it.
Zimplistic told TODAY that it is working on reducing the noise level.
“We have a team constantly working on improving the machine,” its spokesperson said.
And as Rotimatic is equipped with Wi-Fi, customers just have to update Rotimatic to enjoy the new features whenever changes are made.
The company is also planning on rolling out a feature where users can access Rotimatic through their phone app.
Nagarkar is setting her sights on other countries. The machine has already been requested by consumers from markets such as India and Dubai.
“(Rotimatic) has clearly carved out a new category in an immense market that’s been largely under-served so far,” she said. — TODAY
Interested users can now register their interest at rotimatic.com/list. Priority will be given to the people further up on the waitlist.
