INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Picnic, a robotics startup that focuses on food production, announced today that it has raised $5 million in additional seed funding
The new round was led by Creative Ventures, with participation from Flying Fish Partners and Vulcan Capital.The company also said it has
hired Kennard Nielsen, a product engineer who worked on the first four Kindle Fire tablets, Nike Fuelband, Microsoft Xbox and Doppler
Labs’ HereOne from Doppler Labs at previous positions, as its new vice president of engineering.The new funding will be used for product
development, hiring and marketing.Picnic is known for an automated pizza assembly system that launched in October
The configurable, modular platform currently focuses on high-volume pizza production and can reach rates of up to 180 18-inch pizzas or 300
The system fits into existing kitchen layouts, including food trucks and kiosks, and integrates with Picnic’s software to provide backend
data and cloud analytics that help with consistency, speed and reducing food waste.Picnic operates on a “robotics-as-a-service” model,
with users paying for the system on a subscription basis
The pizza assembly system’s first customers were Centerplate, a food and hospitality provider for large event venues, and Washington-based
restaurant chain Zaucer Pizza.In June, Picnic also hired Mike McLaughlin, a food and beverage industry veteran who previously held roles at
BUNN, Concordia Coffee Systems and Starbucks, as its vice president of product.
