Stronghold Robotics
Tabletop and countertop machines, Incheon, South Korea.
History
Founded in Seoul in 2010 under the name Stronghold Technology, the company took the opposite view from everyone else: instead of one heat source, three, controlled separately. A vertical tower drum, a propeller that stirs, air that circulates, and halogen lamps that radiate. The X series adds a drum heating element to adjust conduction separately.
It reached the United States in 2017 with the S7, released the S7X and S9X in 2018, and obtained in 2022-2023 what no electric roaster had obtained: to be the official machine of the American roasting championships, a competition that requires all contestants to have the same machine in the same condition. About 15 million dollars raised from SoftBank Ventures and others, 6.3 million in revenue in 2020. Renamed Stronghold Robotics, it moved to Incheon in 2024 and launched the home S2 the same year, then the S8X in May 2025. Equipment supplier of the Best of Panama in 2025.
What it makes
Electric roasters with three decoupled heating modes: convection, conduction homogenized by a propeller, halogen radiation.
The models
- S2: home, 2024
- S7 Pro: 1.5 to 4.5 kg, two halogen lamps, 19.5 kW
- S7X and S9X: 2018), the S9X being 3 to 8 kg with four lamps and 34.3 kW
- S8X: about 4.5 kg, May 2025
What you gain
On a gas drum, conduction, convection and radiation are tied together by one flame and one air damper; here they are adjusted one by one, and a profile is reproduced without depending on gas pressure or ambient temperature. The choice by an official competition is a professional validation of this repeatability. All electric, so installable where gas is impossible.
What you lose
The trade-off is electrical and heavy: 19.5 kW for 4.5 kg, 34.3 kW for 8 kg, which means a three-phase installation and a cost per kilowatt-hour where gas often remains cheaper per unit of useful energy. The halogen lamp is a consumable that a burner does not have. Three levers means three times as many ways to go wrong, and nothing known about a drum carries over. The proprietary architecture locks you into the manufacturer's software.