Chipotle Launches $50 Million Venture Fund

<p>National restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill has formed Cultivate Next&comma; a new venture fund which intends to make early-stage investments into companies that further Chipotle&&num;8217&semi;s mission to Cultivate a Better World&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The aim of Cultivate Next is to support seed to Series B stage companies that can accelerate the Company&&num;8217&semi;s strategic priorities such as running great restaurants&comma; amplifying technology and innovation&comma; further advancing its Food With Integrity mission&comma; and expanding access and convenience for consumers&period; The new venture fund will have an initial size of <span class&equals;"xn-money">&dollar;50 million<&sol;span> and will be financed solely by Chipotle&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We are exploring investments in emerging innovation that will enhance our employee and guest experience&comma; and quite possibly revolutionize the restaurant industry&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Curt Garner&comma; Chief Technology Officer&comma; Chipotle&period; &&num;8220&semi;Investing in forward-thinking ventures that are looking to drive meaningful change at scale will help accelerate Chipotle&&num;8217&semi;s aggressive growth plans&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As a digital leader&comma; Chipotle recently began testing an artificially intelligent robot&comma; Chippy&comma; to cook its tortilla chips&comma; as well as radio-frequency identification &lpar;RFID&rpar; to trace and track ingredients in its restaurants&period; These steps are to both drive efficiencies and enhance the human experience&period; Chipotle is also leveraging a new scheduling tool that uses machine learning to build more effective schedules and last year&comma; made an investment in a leading autonomous delivery company&comma; Nuro&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Chipotle has over 2&comma;950 restaurants in the United States&comma; Canada&comma; the United Kingdom&comma; France and Germany&period; It is the only restaurant company of its size that owns and operates all its restaurants with no franchising&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;