Chipotle Mexican Grill has announced the formation of Cultivate Next, a new venture which intends to make early-stage investments into strategically aligned companies that further the company's mission to cultivate a better world. Cultivate Next's aim is to support seed to Series B stage companies that can accelerate its strategic priorities such as running restaurants, amplifying technology and innovation, further advancing its Food With Integrity mission, and expanding access and convenience for consumers. The new venture fund will have an initial size of $50 million and will be financed solely by Chipotle.
"We are exploring investments in emerging innovation that will enhance our employee and guest experience, and quite possibly revolutionize the restaurant industry," said Curt Garner, chief technology officer, Chipotle, in a statement. "Investing in forward-thinking ventures that are looking to drive meaningful change at scale will help accelerate Chipotle's aggressive growth plans."
Chipotle recently began testing an artificially intelligent robot, Chippy, to cook its tortilla chips, as well as RFID to trace and track ingredients in its restaurants. These steps are to both drive efficiencies and enhance the human experience. Chipotle is also leveraging a new scheduling tool that uses machine learning to build more effective schedules and last year, made an investment in a leading autonomous delivery company, Nuro.
Related: Chipotle Tests RFID Traceability Technology; Chipotle Launches Burrito Builder on Roblox.