Keenon: a Chinese serving robot that went from hotpot restaurants to 70-plus countries

An industrial equipment maker turns to restaurants

Keenon started in Shanghai in 2010 making industrial equipment. In 2019 a company manager said it began looking at commercial robots for restaurants as a big market in 2012. The first restaurant version took three years and “didn’t work that well,” and the final version was ready only in 2017. According to the company history, it launched the DINERBOT T1 in 2016, began mass production in 2018 and that year helped set up a “smart restaurant” for the hotpot chain Haidilao. In Japan the T1 was sold as PEANUT. It carried 10 kg on each of three trays, read markers on the ceiling with an upward-facing camera and moved at up to 1 m/s.

Leasing, and 100,000 robots shipped

Keenon mostly chose to lease its robots rather than sell them. In 2020 one robot cost CNY 3,000 a month on one- to two-year contracts, and CEO Li Tong expected the industry to settle on leasing. In 2019 more than 10,000 of its robots were in use and revenue was about CNY 100 million. In September 2021 it raised $200 million in a round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Nikkei reported that Keenon held about 85% of China’s restaurant delivery-robot market. The company said in November 2024 that it had shipped more than 100,000 robots. Citing IDC, it also said it ranked first in global commercial service robot shipments for 2024, with a 22.7% share. In January 2026 it showed a humanoid at CES for the first time.

Izakaya guests and a price war in Korea

The manager of an all-you-can-eat izakaya in Fukuoka that brought in PEANUT in April 2020 said the robot had eased the hall staff’s load and that guests enjoyed their encounters with it. Guests and staff still lifted the dishes onto the tables. In Korea, Everybot has leased serving robots since 2023 that put its own shelves and screen on Keenon’s base. An Everybot vice president said the serving-robot market was effectively turning into a price war. A 2024 study observing nurses’ transport work in two rural clinics in Bavaria looked at using restaurant robots such as the Keenon T5 to carry hospital meals and estimated a payback period of about 3.1 years.

The basic job, rolled out fast and wide

Keenon’s serving robots focus on carrying food between tables rather than chatting or showing a personality. Leasing lowered restaurants’ upfront cost, and the company grew from large Chinese restaurant chains to markets abroad. With BellaBot and Servi, which do the same job, also still on sale, restaurant serving is one of the few fields where service robots have settled in. As the market grows, though, competition is shifting from features to price.

When more and more robots do the same job, where can design set one apart?

What we haven’t confirmed

• Shipment numbers and market share (only company figures and the IDC data the company cites were seen)
• Current purchase price and lease rate
• Whether Keenon is pursuing a Hong Kong listing
• Independent studies of restaurant use, and staff reactions