The most technological deception. Juicer Swallowing 120 Million Dollars
'22.04.2017'
Source: Geektimes
In pursuit of startups in the world, thousands of incredible and useless gadgets and startups are created every year. Trays for eggs that count eggs, a kettle that determines the temperature of the water, and hundreds more projects that no one needs.
But foodtech startup Juicero turned out to be an incredible scam. The developers of the smart juicer started from the real boom in healthy eating, which is being promoted in Western countries. And so they proposed an apparatus that will squeeze juice from vegetables and fruits that have been previously washed, peeled and packed in a special - no less smart - bag. The package was to be inserted into a juicer, which, according to the founder of the company, Doug Evans, is very high-tech, squeezing occurs under tremendous pressure, “enough to lift two cars Tesla"As he put it (The Press itself creates a Teslas). In another interview, he said that this fantastic device contains 400 original parts: 2 motor, scanner, wireless antenna, “aviation aluminum alloy 775”, gearbox and gate valves that withstand 16 thousand pound-force (71170 Newtons).
Investors have invested about $ 120 million in this startup. The project was supported by some 20 investment funds, including Campbell Soup, Google Ventures, Artis Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Two Sigma Ventures, First Beverage Group, Acre Ventures, Double Bottom Line Ventures, Thrive Capital, Vast Ventures and others.
The first devices were sold for $ 700, a little later the company reduced the cost to $ 400. Such a price, according to the developers, was determined by high technologies and materials that are used in production.
But soon, users discovered that in those cherished packages there were no products at all, but ordinary juice, already prepared earlier by high-tech production, and the expensive juicer simply squeezed the juice out of the package. Some have tried to squeeze the juice out of the bag with their hands in a race with a juicer. The result was almost the same.
It turned out that the entire startup is nothing more than a soap bubble, a high-tech device with the same success can just stand in the kitchen.
Officially, the company has not commented on the scandal. But, as the portal writes Geektimes, a source close to the company states that the company was aware that the juice can be squeezed by hand, but they still decided to bring the product to the market, because “most users still prefer to squeeze the packets in the gadget, rather than manually”, because “this the process is more consistent and less messy. "
