Sweetgreen sells Spyce robotics unit to Wonder for $186.4M – The Robot Report

Salad and bowl restaurant chain Sweetgreen Inc. this month supplied its Spyce robotics alternate to Marvel Neighborhood Inc. for $186.4 million. Every Sweetgreen and Marvel acknowledged they design to set up Spyce’s Limitless Kitchen machine in additional locations.

Founded in 2015 by graduates of MIT, Spyce had developed an automatic hopper-primarily based completely advance to assembling food bowls and operated two restaurants in Boston. Sweetgreen obtained the Somerville, Mass.-primarily based completely startup for about $70 million in 2021. It then shut down the score sites to focal point on organising Spyce’s technology to be used within its have restaurants.

Sweetgreen has redesigned and commercialized the Limitless Kitchen, which is now in exhaust in greater than 20 Sweetgreen locations across the U.S. The Los Angeles-primarily based completely firm acknowledged it has additionally increased its throughput and enhanced food quality, accuracy, and consistency. Nonetheless, Sweetgreen has faced its have financial challenges as the financial system and demand shifted.

“We’re extremely gratified with the work our workers and the Spyce workers dangle carried out to create, scale, and monetize one in every of the enviornment’s most developed robotic food technologies,” acknowledged Jonathan Neman, co-founder and CEO of Sweetgreen.

“We remain deeply assured in each the Limitless Kitchen’s future influence and the unparalleled workers within the support of it,” he added. “As we focal point on utilizing long-length of time, a hit negate, our collaboration with Marvel will allow us to continue increasing and bettering the Sweetgreen skills for our company, whereas unlocking unique opportunities for innovation and scale within the years ahead.”

Sweetgreen to continue deploying Limitless Kitchen

In return for Spyce, Sweetgreen will win $100 million in cash plus shares of Series C most well-liked stock of Marvel with an implied price of $86.4 million in line with Marvel’s label per fragment in its most up-to-date equity financing. Sweetgreen acknowledged it plans to make exhaust of the funds to “reinvest in key priorities and sharpen its focal point on negate and profitability.”

In connection with the sale, Sweetgreen has signed a offer and license settlement to continue deploying Limitless Kitchens across its restaurants. As portion of the settlement, 38 Spyce engineers and enhance staffers, including Spyce co-founders Michael Farid, Kale Rogers, Brady Knight, and Luke Schlueter, will transition to Marvel.

Marvel appears to be like to conform with Spyce in its cookbook

Recent York-primarily based completely Marvel asserted that the Limitless Kitchen will extra its evolution from a vertically-integrated restaurant operator to a tech-pushed food platform proudly owning each robotics and infrastructure.

“At Marvel, all the pieces begins and ends with the customer,” acknowledged Marc Lore, founder and CEO of Marvel. “As we evolve from a first-of-its-kind, multi-restaurant operator into a surely scalable, technology-powered food platform, the acquisition of Spyce’s Limitless Kitchen presents us leading robotics capabilities that can became how food is willing and served.”

“This technology permits us to in a roundabout diagram operate greater than 100 restaurants across any delicacies kind and cost point, all out of a shrimp kitchen, whereas serving food faster, hotter, and with flawless accuracy and consistency,” he acknowledged. “It furthers our mission to originate enormous food extra accessible, bringing extra restaurants to extra participants, in additional locations, at extra times of day, and at extra cheap prices.”