Operations

Chipotle adding $50M to Cultivate Next

Greenfield Robotics' fleets of autonomous robots are lightweight and cut weeds between rows of broadacre crops, day or night, reducing dependence on herbicides while supporting regenerative farming practices and reducing risk for farmers. Photo: Chipotle

February 28, 2024

Chipotle Mexican Grill is increasing its commitment to its Cultivate Next venture fund by $50 million, which brings the investment pool to $100 million.

Introduced in 2022, Cultivate Next makes early-stage investments into strategically aligned companies that further Chipotle's mission to Cultivate a Better World and help accelerate the company's aggressive longer-term growth plans to operate 7,000 restaurants in North America.

"Our decision to double our commitment to our Cultivate Next venture fund is a clear indicator that we are investing in the right companies that we can learn from and utilize to improve the human experience of our restaurant teams, farmers, and suppliers," Curt Garner, chief customer and technology officer, said in a company press release. "The parallel growth of Chipotle and our partners will continue to further our mission to Cultivate a Better World by increasing access to real food."

Chipotle has invested in a wide range of companies innovating in areas such as farming, supply chain, advanced robotics and plant-based foods. The $50 million commitment will expand the company's existing portfolio, which currently features:

• Local Line, a food sourcing platform for regional food systems, serving farms, producers, food hubs and food buyers. In less than a year, Chipotle's investment has helped it digitize operations, increase the retention rate of customers, build a farm databaseand expand to serve international farms in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In tandem, Local Line has been a key partner in enabling Chipotle to meet its local produce sourcing goals. Chipotle will also leverage Local Line to fund grants to local farms within 350 miles of its new restaurants. The company plans to open 285 to 315 locations in 2024.
• GreenField Robotics, a company founded with the vision of making regenerative farming more efficient, cost-effective and sustainable by leveraging AI, robotics and sensing technologies, its autonomous agricultural robots can weed crops while reducing the need for toxic herbicides. With its Cultivate Next investment, GreenField will continue to build its robotic fleets, which are running on farms in several states, and release additional capabilities for the robots including micro-spraying, cover-crop planting and soil testing.
• Nitricity, which is seeking to tackle greenhouse gas emissions by creating fertilizer products that are better for fields, farmers and the environment. Funding from Cultivate Next will be used to scale Nitricity's production of nitrogen, build out the company's infrastructure and support the launch of its first commercial product within the next two years.
• Vebu, a product development company that works with food industry leaders to co-create intelligent automation and technology solutions, is collaborating with Chipotle to build and scale Autocado, its proprietary avocado processing cobotic prototype. Autocado is progressing through Chipotle's stage-gate process and will undergo an operational test in one restaurant this spring,
• Hyphen is a foodservice platform designed to help restaurant owners, operators and budding chefs move their businesses forward by automating kitchen operations. Chipotle is working with Hyphen to build a digital makeline that uses intelligent automation to build bowls and salads while Chipotle employees operate the top makeline to make burritos, tacos and quesadillas. In the coming months, Chipotle's Hyphen digital makeline will debut in a single restaurant location as part of the company's stage-gate process. Hyphen recently received an additional investment from Chipotle through Cultivate Next.
• Meati Foods serves nutrient-dense whole-food products made from MushroomRoot, and Chipotle is continuing to explore opportunities to bring real, fresh vegetables to the center of the plate with menu innovations that uphold its Food with Integrity standards.
• Zero Acre Farms is a food company focused on healthy, sustainable oils and fats that is on a mission to end the food industry's dependence on vegetable oils. The company has introduced a category of healthy oils and fats made by fermentation that are more environmentally friendly. Chipotle is in the early trials of testing Zero Acre Farms at its Cultivate Center test kitchen in Irvine, California.

"It is incredible to see the possibilities that exist when we bring the right founders, startups or ventures into collaboration with Chipotle," Christian Gammill, Cultivate Next fund manager, said in a company press release. "Witnessing the progress of our cohorts over the past two years has motivated us to scale our efforts and drive real change in the supply chain, agriculture, restaurant innovation, and automation sectors."

Chipotle has over 3,400 restaurants.