Chipotle Launches $50 Million Venture Fund

Chipotle 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.

National restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill has formed Cultivate Next, 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;&NewLine;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, amplifying technology and innovation, further advancing its Food With Integrity mission, and expanding access and convenience for consumers&period; The new venture fund will have an initial size of &dollar;50 million and will be financed solely by Chipotle&period;&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;We are exploring investments in emerging innovation that will enhance our employee and guest experience, and quite possibly revolutionize the restaurant industry,&&num;8221&semi; said Curt Garner, Chief Technology Officer, 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;&NewLine;As a digital leader, Chipotle recently began testing an artificially intelligent robot, Chippy, to cook its tortilla chips, as well as radio-frequency identification (RFID) 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, made an investment in a leading autonomous delivery company, Nuro&period;&NewLine;Chipotle has over 2,950 restaurants in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany&period; It is the only restaurant company of its size that owns and operates all its restaurants with no franchising&period;&NewLine;

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