Another pizza robot startup has bit the dust.
And sadly, this isn’t just any pizza robot startup, but the company that, in many ways, had been the most successful in the space, gaining traction through partnerships with restaurant operators big and small.
The news of Picnic’s bankruptcy was first reported by GeekWire, which uncovered a notice of assignment to creditors filed by CMBG Advisors, a restructuring and bankruptcy advisory firm based in California.
According to GeekWire, CMBG founder James Baer said they have found a buyer for Picnic’s assets.
“I want to be respectful of privacy issues, but I will disclose that we did sell the company,” Baer told GeekWire, but declined to reveal the name of the buyer or the purchase price.
Attendees of the Smart Kitchen Summit might remember the company’s first public demonstration was at The Spoon’s event back in 2019. Since those early days, the company partnered with national chains like Domino’s and hometown pizza chain MOTO. Despite interest in the company’s modular robot, which applied sauce and toppings and used a robotics-as-a-service (lease) model, it never achieved profitability, and the company saw a succession of CEOs over its lifespan.
Pizza has been one of the most popular categories in food robotics, but it’s also one of the toughest in which to break through. Everyone from back-of-house robotic arm companies like Zume and Pazzi to pizza vending machine makers like Basil Street and Pizzametry have shut their doors. Now, Picnic joins the growing list of defunct pizza robot makers.
Despite the high failure rate, there always seem to be new entrepreneurs looking to fill the void when it comes to pizza robots. In fact, former Picnic customer Lee Kindell, CEO of MOTO Pizza, sees an opportunity to step in and build a new food robotics company to fill the void left by Picnic and others. According to Kindell, he bid on Picnic’s assets and, after initially being told he had submitted the winning bid, the owners ultimately went with a different offer.
“That made me even angry” Kindell told The Spoon. “I’m like, now I’m gonna start my own freaking robot company.”
According to Kindell, the pizza robot venture is separate from his MOTO pizza chain. He is working with design firms Igor Institute and Fresh Consulting to build the company and is looking to raise funding for the venture.