When it comes to Circus, opinions are often divided, and the concept frequently meets with considerable skepticism.🗣️
But what exactly does the Circus Group do? To put it briefly, in the words of the company’s founder and CEO, Nikolas Bullwinkel: he aims to disrupt the entire kitchen.
The food industry has suffered more than any other in recent years. Since the pandemic, the workforce has dwindled; staff have left the sector, labor is expensive, and qualified personnel are often simply unavailable. In Germany alone, by the end of 2025, approximately 54% of skilled workers in the food industry (chefs and food production staff) had a migration background. 👨🏼🍳🇩🇪 The impact that a rapidly shrinking birth rate in Western countries —combined with conservative migration policies—has on an industry like this is self-evident. Added to this are numerous other smaller factors, such as rising minimum wages, which exert immense pressure on low-margin sectors.
One result: rising prices—for the most fundamental necessity of all: food. 🍖 Many canteens are no longer financially viable because customers are staying away and seeking cheaper alternatives, forcing them to close—often also because staff can no longer be found. And let’s be honest: the food industry is a grueling line of work where—due to slim margins—the pay isn't exactly the most attractive, considering the sacrifices chefs and their teams have to make. (Much love to every single one of you ♥️)
But what about places that need to provide food but where it isn't the core business? This is precisely where Circus comes in with its products. We are talking about places like hospitals, universities, industrial canteens, or even field kitchens. 🏥 Just imagine all these places without in-house food service...
Let’s take a closer look at the Circus Group. It consists of Circus SE and Circus Defence SE. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Circus SE) In 2025, Fully AI was also acquired, and—in addition to that—two further companies were acquired this year. (More on this later.)
Circus is currently defined primarily by its core product, the CA-1. This is a 7-square-meter "silver box"—a self-contained, refrigerated system designed to essentially replicate a small canteen. Fresh ingredients are stored in 36 silos, 12 of which are for liquids. 🍅 Equipped with two robotic arms and four cooking stations, the ca-1 can theoretically prepare six dishes simultaneously (two cold, four hot). Once prepared—a process that typically takes 5–8 minutes for hot dishes—the meals are moved to a dispensing carousel, where they wait for pickup in one of eight compartments that keep them warm. After cooking, the pots are transferred to an integrated dishwasher for immediate cleaning. 🧼 This creates a continuous workflow with no downtime.
To better understand the CA-1, however, a video usually helps to experience the "magic" of the whole system firsthand.📹
Current menu options range from scrambled eggs with potatoes and bacon (€4.59) to truffle penne (€6.99). In my opinion, the prices are really impressive for a supermarket offering.🥘 The many user reports in the dedicated Circus subreddit have also been nothing but positive regarding the taste of the dishes so far. I recently had the chance to taste a few dishes myself at Circus HQ, and I was fascinated!
So, how does the whole process work? As previously mentioned, the pre-prepared ingredients are stored in silos. This means the cooking robot does not cook the pasta itself; pasta and meat are delivered pre-cooked and then receive their final cooking or searing on-site. The food preparation process is thus outsourced to wholesalers, resulting in significantly lower unit costs for the individual ingredients.💰 On-site, the only tasks left for the customer are filling the CA-1’s silos with ingredients and cleaning out any residue daily.📋
Currently, the actual labor time required to operate the system is just 1.5 hours per day—and that covers the operation of an entire canteen. But it gets even better. In the latest Q1 review, Circus revealed plans for an even simpler version: a system similar to Nespresso pods. In this scenario, wholesalers would handle the silo-filling step, meaning the customer would only need to swap out the silos in the CA-1 and clean the unit. This is expected to reduce the actual labor time to 30 minutes a day. Circus is starting with sauces and plans to expand the range further.
However, the CA-1 does far more than simply finalize the cooking process. It also takes over many tasks that would traditionally require an entire cafeteria management team: menu planning, demand forecasting, automatic ingredient reordering when silos run low, and even dynamic pricing adjustments.📋 It is also much more than a sophisticated microwave. The CA-1 is equipped with integrated sensors that continuously monitor temperatures and three cameras powered by Visual Intelligence technology (which can also be marketed as a standalone product). This system can detect anomalies in real time—for example, if a bowl is not being gripped correctly or if pasta misses the pot during dispensing. 🤖 Every CA-1 contributes data that helps improve the performance of all other devices. Thanks to integrated GPUs, much of this data can even be processed locally on the machines themselves. As a result, the systems continuously improve over time and become increasingly reliable—a trend that was also reflected in the latest Q1 review.
The AI orchestrates efficient operations and coordinates the robotic arms of the CA-1. Through its acquisition of Fully AI, Circus has also equipped every CA-1 with a voice assistant capable of advising users on menu items and meal selections.🗣️
Circus offers customers the option to either purchase or lease its systems. A CA-1 currently costs up to €250,000, while the software subscription ranges between €8,000 and €12,000 per month, depending on the package selected. Leasing fees start at approximately €4,000–€9,000 per month and are offered through financing partners such as MMV Bank and FINEXITY.🛒
When Circus signs a customer such as Mercedes, the challenge goes far beyond simply delivering a machine. Circus must integrate with Mercedes’ payment systems, inventory management platforms, and operational workflows. At the same time, it must establish connections with wholesalers and build out the entire supply chain infrastructure. This undoubtedly requires significant effort and time, but it also creates a substantial competitive moat.🏰
The vision behind Circus Vision extends well beyond end-customer deployment. The company’s long-term ambition is to optimize the entire food value chain—from the farmer all the way to the consumer’s plate—through increasing levels of autonomy. A recent example of this vision is the software developed for Meta smart glasses 👓: Circus plans to scale aggressively over the coming years. 📶 The company currently has a theoretical production capacity of 6,000 units annually and expects to achieve an actual production capacity of more than 700 units this year without additional capital investments.🏭 Circus does not manufacture its systems directly. Instead, production is outsourced to contract manufacturer Celestica. At present, Circus operates through a manufacturing facility in Suzhou, China. Later this year, a second facility in Oradea, Romania, is expected to begin operations, primarily focused on military customers. This facility would increase theoretical annual production capacity to approximately 10,000 units. The company also plans to open a manufacturing site in Richardson, Texas later this year. Interestingly, current job postings at Celestica provide some clues regarding these facilities: 🇨🇳Suzhou: 9 open positions 🇷🇴Oradea: 3 open positions 🇺🇸Richardson: 189 open positions This may indicate that the Oradea facility is nearing launch.🔮
So what do the Meta smart glasses have to do with all of this? Production capacity is one thing—but how can a company with only around 85 employees integrate hundreds or even thousands of systems simultaneously? The answer lies in the smart glasses.👓 To meet anticipated demand, Circus is introducing the glasses as a training and operational support platform. They allow operators to be trained without extensive on-site instruction. The glasses can monitor individual workflow steps on command and identify deviations from standard procedures. Even without direct user input, the camera system could proactively detect anomalies throughout the process. But the truly clever aspect goes