A coffee town meets its matcha: Robots help power beverage startup Axon Seattle leader Vale
Luke Larson was often billed for working on Tasers and body-worn cameras for law enforcement at Axon. Now he’s drooling over matcha, an ancient Japanese green tea powder that devotees say brings a calm, focused energy without the buzz of coffee.
Larson’s ambition is remarkable in itself as he plans to build Vale into a Seattle-born beverage empire — think Starbucks, but with matcha — from a few local bars and mobile bars to a nationwide network of thousands of vending machines.
A move he has previously withdrawn. As president of Axon, Larson helped grow the company from about $100 million in revenue to $1 billion in sales before stepping down in 2022.
Larson sees Vale sitting at the intersection of consumer products, hospitality, technology and automation — with an opportunity to build something from the ground up.
“While other companies are moving out of Seattle, we’re investing in Seattle,” Larson told GeekWire from Vale’s Pioneer Square headquarters, where he works primarily recruiting tech talent for companies including Starbucks, Amazon and Microsoft.
Body cameras in matcha bars
Larson, who grew up in Forks, Wash., served two tours in Iraq as a Marine Corps infantry officer and was awarded a Bronze Star with a V for valor on his first tour. He joined Axon in 2008 and was the product manager for the company’s first cameras.
He rose to president at Axon in 2017 and helped build a significant engineering presence for the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company. in Seattle. In addition to its work building tools and technology to help reduce police use of force, Axon has drawn attention in Seattle for its geeky spaceship-themed office and unique recruiting tactics.
In 2022, Larson left Axon following a health scare, taking a six-month sabbatical before moving to Switzerland with his wife and three daughters for a two-year sabbatical – a time that gave him time to think about his next chapter.
It was then that Larson tried matcha for the first time, at the urging of his wife and sister-in-law. His initial reaction was not promising – he didn’t like it. But an introduction to chef Jeffrey Hayden, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America who had worked in Michelin-starred restaurants, convinced him that high-quality, cold-brewed matcha was a completely different experience.
Larson returned to Seattle with a new vision for the company, and last year launched Vale, opening its first cafe in South Lake Union in May 2025.
While a second cafe is in the works on First Hill, Vale’s goal of growth is even more prominent. The company this summer will operate 23 mobile matcha bars, with staffed plans to reach 100 by the end of the year and 1,000 next year. To support that growth, Vale recently leased a 36,000-square-foot production facility south of downtown Seattle — space that Atomo Coffee previously used as a roastery.
Hayden serves as the startup’s head of art and Vale has 73 employees, about half of whom are matcha front-line workers, with the rest split between software engineers, mechanical and robotics engineers. Former Axon leaders include CTO Jay Reitz and Sydney Siegmeth, head of people and communications.
Larson, a major investor, plans to keep the company private for another two years before seeking outside funding.
His longtime game involves robots.
Larson wants to build a network of self-service matcha machines that he envisions in office towers, apartment buildings and other places that wouldn’t support a traditional cafe.
Matcha from the machine
Vale sources its festival-grade matcha from Shizuoka, Japan, a region that Larson likens to the Pacific Northwest, sitting at the foot of Mount Fuji. Hayden leads the team that developed a specialty drink menu – from classic iced matcha to lattes and seasonal creations like a tiki-themed summer drink – served across the cafe, matcha bars and machines through a single mobile app.
Next to Vale’s HQ in the lobby of the office building at 505 First Ave. S., just a block from Lumen Field, sits a futuristic-looking matcha dispenser. With its smooth finish and rounded edges, it’s almost the size of a small car, with a central touchscreen between two frosted panels that reveal a beverage delivery portal.
A peek inside the back of the machine reveals a robotic arm that moves from end to end. First a personalized label is placed on the plastic container to match what the customer has written on it. It then fills the container with the beverage of choice from 10 automatic touch selections. The container is then topped with a soda-style aluminum lid before being placed in the window for pickup.
Larson sees the machine as something like a “Star Trek” rerun, where technology fades into the background and the focus remains on the customer experience.
“We want to disrupt your expectations of what can come out of the machine,” he said.
The $7 strawberry matcha tasted by GeekWire comes pretty close to doing that. Flavored with oat milk, the cold, sweet, creamy drink was a nice surprise compared to the traditional hot and spicy matcha I’d sipped on the lawn.
Larson hopes the taste is equally good as a generation of consumers is increasingly attracted to matcha as an alternative to coffee – especially drinkers who prefer cold drinks and are wary of the jitters that come with the caffeine habit.
He is betting that Seattle is the right place to find them, and to build a team to support them, as Vale plans to hire up to 100 people in the next 12 months.
“I believe Seattle’s best years are ahead of it,” Larson said. “To build the kind of company I want to build, I don’t think there is a better city in the world.”
