# Stephen Klein

> Stephen Klein is the co-founder and CEO of Hyphen, a San Jose food-robotics company that builds the automated Makeline - a hybrid manual-and-robotic assembly system that runs beneath the counter to build bowls and plates at up to 350 meals per hour. A self-described foodservice fanatic since childhood, Klein started a text-to-order frozen yogurt business in college, helped scale Instacart in its early days, and ran operations at robotic coffee bar Cafe X before launching Hyphen in 2020 with co-founder Daniel Fukuba. Hyphen has since drawn investment from Tiger Global, Chipotle and Cava and deployed systems with chains and foodservice operators across the country.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Hyphen
- **Organizations:** Hyphen, Cafe X, Instacart
- **Nationality:** American
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Hyphen, builder of the first automated restaurant Makeline., Helped secure the first robotic restaurant approval in California while at Cafe X., Raised roughly $58-59M in total funding for Hyphen from investors including Tiger Global, Chipotle and Cava.

## Career timeline

- **College** — Founded 'Fro Yo at the Vue,' a text-to-order frozen yogurt delivery business - a self-described humbling first venture.
- **2014** — Joined Instacart shortly after its Series A (~30 employees), working in product operations on the shopper app as the company scaled to roughly 500 people.
- **2016** — Became VP of Operations at Cafe X, a robotic coffee bar startup, where he secured the first robotic restaurant approval in California.
- **2020** — Co-founded Hyphen with Daniel Fukuba; pivoted from an automated smoothie food truck to the hybrid robotic Makeline after pandemic lockdowns.
- **2022** — Received a cold email from Chipotle's team leading to a demo; Chipotle's Cultivate Next fund became an investor.
- **2023** — Hyphen raised a ~$24M Tiger Global-led Series A to build out its factory and deploy the Makeline.
- **2025** — Closed a Series B including investment from Cava; Chipotle's total investment reached $25M via Cultivate Next.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Hyphen, builder of the first automated restaurant Makeline.
- Helped secure the first robotic restaurant approval in California while at Cafe X.
- Raised roughly $58-59M in total funding for Hyphen from investors including Tiger Global, Chipotle and Cava.
- Built a Makeline capable of producing about 350 meals per hour while cutting order errors, without adding kitchen footprint.
- Deployed Hyphen systems with major operators including Chipotle, Cava, Aramark and Compass Group.

## Latest updates

- **2025-08** — Hyphen closed a Series B round that included investment from Cava, one of its restaurant customers.
- **2025-12** — Reporting confirmed Chipotle had invested a total of $25M into Hyphen via its Cultivate Next venture fund, alongside Cava, as Hyphen scaled its automated Makelines.

## Links

- Website: https://usehyphen.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephensklein

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/stephen-klein
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-27