Posha: A Taste of the Future, Cooked with Care
There have been far too many times when I’ve walked into the kitchen, only to be greeted by the unmistakable smell of burnt food — a casualty of multitasking, distraction, and, quite honestly, forgetfulness. Cooking, while deeply therapeutic for many, demands attention, patience, and precision. In a world where time is often our most limited currency, imagine not having to hover over a stove, worry about switching off the gas, or second-guess whether dinner is edible, and yet still enjoy a delicious, home-cooked meal.
That’s the promise of Posha, an autonomous cooking robot that could very well redefine the future of our kitchens. But behind the technology lies a deeper, more human story — one of family, values, and persistence.
A Thoughtful Name, A Deeper Intent
The name Posha is derived from the Sanskrit word Poshan, meaning nourishment — a nod to both its functional role and its philosophical roots. Originally founded as Nymble in 2017 by Raghav Gupta and Rohin Malhotra, the company’s vision goes far beyond engineering. Raghav, a passionate entrepreneur with a deep respect for food, didn’t just set out to build a smart appliance. He set out to reimagine how we experience food in our daily lives.
I recently spent an afternoon with Raghav at his home in San Mateo, California, a space that seamlessly doubles as his office, lab, and test kitchen. Over lunch, cooked by Posha, we spoke at length about the journey, the product, and the human motivations behind both.
The meal was Spaghetti Alfredo with mushrooms, an Americanized pasta dish that was hearty, rich, and full of flavor. It reminded me not of a restaurant, but of something lovingly made at home. And perhaps that is the greatest compliment.
Humble Beginnings, Lasting Values
When I asked Raghav about what shaped his entrepreneurial journey, he spoke not of Silicon Valley pitch rooms or venture capital, but of his parents.
“My father runs a grocery store in New Delhi,” he told me. “He dropped out of college but built his business entirely through hard work. My mother is a homemaker. Neither of them were big readers, but they surrounded me with books.”
That small gesture — of placing books in his hands — instilled in him a lifelong curiosity. Working at the grocery store after school gave him discipline and a firsthand understanding of what fresh food means to people. “There’s a kind of love,” he said, “that people associate with fresh ingredients. It’s emotional.”
What struck me most was how these seemingly ordinary life moments built the foundation for something extraordinary. Raghav’s story is a reminder that behind every founder is a family, a culture, and often, quiet sacrifices.
He also shared how his parents imparted spiritual teachings that have been just as crucial to his journey. A particular verse from the Bhagavad Gita — Karmanye vadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana — has stayed with him. “You have the right to your work, but not to the fruits of it.” That simple but profound idea taught him patience, something that any founder building hardware in a world of instant software gratification desperately needs.
Building a Robot, Brick by Brick
Much like autonomous cars, building an autonomous cooking robot is enormously complex. As Raghav explained, getting a product to 90% functionality is challenging, but that last 10%? It’s exponentially harder. And that elusive final 1%? That’s where magic happens.
Today, Posha is already in over 200 homes, with a waitlist of 1,000+ eager customers. The product eliminates up to 70% of the time, effort, and mental load of everyday cooking. You still need to chop vegetables or boil pasta, but gone are the days of constant monitoring and the stress of “what’s for dinner?”
Crucially, Posha doesn’t try to remove humans from the kitchen; it augments them. It gives people back their time and energy, while still allowing them to enjoy freshly made, nourishing food.
The Irony of Fit
Ironically, Posha, though co-founded by Indian entrepreneurs, found its first loyal users not in India, but in the U.S. Just like the dishwasher, which still has limited penetration in Indian homes, Posha is thriving in markets where time is more expensive than labor.
With zero marketing spend, the company’s early adopters came almost entirely from word of mouth, especially among product thinkers in Silicon Valley. These weren’t passive consumers; they were engaged users, offering feedback, experimenting with recipes, and treating Posha as a platform for innovation. That spirit of co-creation is rare, and powerful.
Investors have noticed. Posha recently raised $8 million in Series A funding, led by Accel.
A Cross-Continental Collaboration
It would be too simplistic to call Posha a product of Indian innovation alone. As Raghav put it, “Posha is a product of free-flowing ideas and might between Silicon Valley and Bengaluru.” While he and his co-founder are of Indian origin and their engineering team is largely based in India, the vision, feedback, and user empathy that shaped the product owe as much to their time in the Valley.
“If we were purely in Bangalore with no presence in the Valley,” he said, “Posha would not have been possible.”
The design, too, reflects this cross-continental blend — inspired partly by Indian values around food and family, and partly by the design sensibilities and user-first thinking that permeates Silicon Valley. It is this hybrid DNA that makes Posha globally relevant.
Perfection is a Journey
No, Posha isn’t perfect. Personalization is still a work in progress. New features are being added constantly. But customer satisfaction already hovers around an impressive 4.65 out of 5, and the roadmap is promising.
With over 1,000 recipes spanning 10 global cuisines, the device is steadily narrowing the gap between human-cooked and machine-cooked meals. It may not replace the artistry of a Michelin-starred chef like Vikas Khanna or Suvir Saran, but that’s not the point.
What Posha offers is consistency, nutrition, and simplicity, day after day.
The Future of Indian-Led Innovation
If India wants to be taken seriously as a product nation, we must think beyond service delivery. That future, however, won’t be built in isolation. It will be built, like Posha, through collaboration across borders, and through a mindset that fuses global ambition with local intuition.
We often talk about the elusive “Apple of India”. Maybe it won’t come from smartphones or shiny devices; maybe it will come from solving everyday problems like putting a warm meal on the table.
On my wife’s 49th birthday, I gifted her a Posha. Not as a tech gadget, but as a gesture — of care, curiosity, and convenience. A way to reclaim time, without giving up tradition.
More Than a Machine
In the end, Posha is not just a cooking robot. It’s a reflection of a new kind of founder — one who blends engineering with empathy, tradition with technology, and roots with reach.
It’s a product born from a grocery store in Delhi, shaped in the kitchens of Silicon Valley, and built through the collective strength of two ecosystems, both brilliant in their own ways.
And if it saves me from burning the rajma one more time, well, that’s just a bonus.
