SAN FRANCISCO, March 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Focal, a San Francisco–based robotics company, today introduced its autonomous personal comfort platform, debuting with a robotic electric heating system designed for restaurants and hospitality businesses. Unlike traditional heating systems that flood entire spaces with indiscriminate warmth, Focal’s AI-enabled platform continuously detects where guests are seated, delivers targeted heat only to occupied seats, and puts individual comfort controls in every guest’s hands.
The system cuts energy consumption by up to 80% and reduces upfront installation costs by up to 75%. It has logged more than 30,000 hours of live restaurant operations, spanning Michelin-star groups, regional chains, and independent operators. Designed as a 120V plug-and-play solution, it is the first robotic heating system certified to UL standards.
“For decades, innovation in the heating and cooling industry has focused almost exclusively on energy efficiency. It is a worthy pursuit, but one that has come at the expense of the more fundamental question: are people actually comfortable?” said Rohan Pandya, Co-founder of Focal. “By embedding purpose-built robotics directly into climate infrastructure, we’re delivering a first-of-its-kind platform for personal comfort while setting a new standard for energy efficiency. Every individual now has control over their own comfort.”
In contrast, traditional systems operate like a blunt instrument, heating entire spaces regardless of occupancy. Installation is expensive and time-consuming, energy inefficiency drives significant costs, and guest comfort is largely an afterthought. For restaurants, where outdoor patios represent critical revenue-generating space and operators already navigate thin margins and rising costs, these shortcomings are especially consequential.
Focal was founded to change that. Childhood friends Raj Tilwa and Rohan Pandya grew up in India, where central heating and cooling wasn't the norm. Moving to the U.S. for college, both were struck by the prevalence and energy intensity of space-based conditioning. A whopping 51% of energy use is from buildings, and yet 40% of occupants still report thermal discomfort.
While Tilwa earned his MBA/MPA from Stanford and Harvard, and Pandya completed his master's in robotics at Carnegie Mellon and worked in autonomous driving at Tesla and Zoox, the two reunited to start Focal. Its mission — comfort that is personal, effortless, and sustainable — rests on a simple premise: every individual deserves automatic, waste-free control over their own thermal environment.
The system combines purpose-built hardware, integrated occupancy sensors, and AI to deliver autonomous, precise comfort at the individual level. The platform is built to continuously monitor every seat across an outdoor space, directs heat only where guests are present, and powers down when a seat empties. Guests adjust their personal settings through intuitive digital controls. Operators manage the system through a centralized dashboard, with real-time visibility across their entire patio.
The operational results are measurable:
- 25% increase in patio seating capacity
- Labor savings of up to 2 hours per shift
- Higher guest satisfaction, with operators reporting a 25% increase in five-star reviews for outdoor dining areas
“Outdoor heating used to be something we tolerated,” said Keith Cox, CEO at Pacific Catch. “With Focal, it’s become an operational advantage. This isn’t just a better heater, it’s a fundamentally different approach that’s more cost-effective for the business, more comfortable for guests, and more convenient for our team. It is a win, win, win, win.”
Strong operator demand has driven rapid expansion. Today, Focal is live across diverse restaurant settings throughout the Bay Area, with installations including Atomic Workshop’s The Anchovy Bar, Pacific Catch, Equator Coffees, Wayfare Tavern, and RT Bistro.
“Focal made our outdoor space work the way we always wanted it to,” said Eli Palmer, Managing Partner at The Anchovy Bar. “Our patio now feels like a true extension of the main dining room, allowing us to seat more guests and make the most of our space.”
Focal continues to grow its restaurant footprint through new operator partnerships and deeper relationships with regional chains and groups. As the company scales nationally, it plans to extend its autonomous personal comfort platform into a broader range of environments, including homes, offices, warehouses, transit shelters, and hospitals. To learn more about Focal, visit https://www.focalheat.co.
About Focal:
Focal is a San Francisco–based robotics company creating a world where comfort is personal, effortless, and sustainable. Through AI-enabled hardware, Focal’s personal comfort system delivers targeted, autonomous warmth while eliminating the energy and cost inefficiencies of traditional comfort systems. The company has logged more than 30,000 hours of live restaurant operation across Michelin-star restaurant groups, regional chains, and independent operators. Focal has raised $4 million in pre-seed funding from leading VC investors like Collaborative Fund, Third Sphere, Brainstorm Ventures, Dangerous Ventures, Cool Climate Collective, Momentum Capital, and CLAI Ventures, in addition to strategic angels across energy, hospitality, and hardware. Learn more at https://www.focalheat.co.
Contact:
Emily Fox
press@focalheat.co
