Picnic, the 10-year-old Seattle meals automation startup that got down to revolutionize the manufacturing of pizza with robotics, has shut down and liquidated its property.
In line with authorized paperwork and an electronic mail to collectors and traders, Picnic was unable to pay its money owed and on Might 11 executed a Normal Task for the Advantage of Collectors, a state-law course of that enables an bancrupt firm to liquidate its property outdoors of chapter. A Santa Monica, Calif.-based liquidator, CMBG Advisors Inc., was named to deal with the wind-down.
“CMBG can be working to unload any remaining firm property and intends to distribute any money proceeds after bills to collectors,” acknowledged the e-mail, which was seen by GeekWire.
In reality, a purchaser for these property and Picnic’s mental property has since been discovered, mentioned James Baer, founder and president of CMBG, talking by way of telephone Friday afternoon.
“I need to be respectful of privateness points, however I’ll disclose that we did promote the corporate,” Baer mentioned. He declined to disclose the identify of the customer, the acquisition value or how any of the property is likely to be used.
The event marks a dramatic flip for a startup that raised about $50 million and was inserting its pizza-making robots in stadiums, universities, and big-box retailers throughout the nation. As of Friday, Picnic’s web site was nonetheless stay, touting its most up-to-date funding spherical.
Based in 2016 by mechanical engineer Garett Ochs as Otto Robotics after which Vivid Robotics, Picnic included as Picnic Works, and got down to sort out one of many meals business’s most persistent challenges: the excessive value and inconsistency of guide meals preparation. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital was amongst people who funded the corporate’s seed spherical.
Its signature product, the Picnic Pizza Station, might assist a single worker produce as much as 100 custom-made 12-inch pizzas per hour by automating the topping course of — a pitch aimed squarely at high-volume meals service operations combating labor prices and turnover.
GeekWire first noticed and examined the robotic pizza maker in 2019 as the corporate, led on the time by CEO Clayton Wooden, emerged from stealth mode at its headquarters in Seattle’s Interbay neighborhood.
Picnic continued to boost funding and search new prospects over the following few years with Wooden on the helm. The pandemic accelerated demand for carry-out and supply as meals service was reimagined. In 2021, the startup raised $16 million and inked a partnership with Seattle’s Ethan Stowell Eating places. In 2022, a partnership with Domino’s examined robotic pizza meeting.
“Proper now we’re actually enthusiastic about among the prospects we’re speaking to throughout every kind of segments,” Wooden mentioned on the time. “We’re every thing — comfort shops, branded pizza, giant manufacturers in pizza, ski resorts, theme parks, grocers, managed meals service. We’re jazzed.”
By 2023, Picnic had grown to about 100 workers, nevertheless it bumped into financial headwinds, struggled to boost additional cash, and was pressured to conduct layoffs. Wooden stepped down as CEO that yr.
Reached Friday, Wooden recalled Picnic being “caught within the squeeze” between a free-money period of 2018-2019 and 2022, “when the underside dropped out of the market.”
The corporate introduced on new CEO Michael Bridges in Might 2023 and managed to draw $5 million in new financing, with backing from Unlock Enterprise Companions, the agency co-led by longtime Seattle-area entrepreneur and investor Andy Liu.
“Every thing they did after that was taking place in some type of stealth mode, which was weird to me,” Wooden mentioned. “As a result of every thing I used to be doing was making an attempt to put it up for sale and make it well-known.”
Bridges lasted about two years and was gone in July 2025.
Final September, one other new CEO got here aboard — Valeri Inting — who had her sights set on constructing a “hospitality-first automated pizza chain,” with a pop-up deliberate for New York Metropolis earlier this yr. Nevertheless it by no means occurred.
On Friday, GeekWire visited R&D Interbay, a versatile workspaces improvement in Seattle’s industrial Interbay neighborhood the place Picnic’s headquarters had been beforehand positioned.
The second-floor house was empty. There was no lingering scent of robotic pizza within the air.
Different tenants within the constructing recalled Picnic packing up a number of months in the past. One remembered tasting pizzas sometimes, and one other mentioned the trash bins had been stuffed with “attention-grabbing supplies” similar to motors and different parts after the move-out.
Amongst these left within the lurch by the demise of Picnic was Lee Kindell, proprietor and chef at Seattle’s Moto Pizza and an evangelist for know-how within the kitchen. Moto operates eight Seattle areas and is increasing in California.
Kindell was one in all Picnic’s most enthusiastic early prospects, saying in 2023 that “robotics is the way forward for meals” as he confirmed off a Pizza Station at his Belltown location. He advised GeekWire this week that he really wished to purchase Picnic when he first realized of the corporate’s monetary troubles.
When the tip lastly got here, he mentioned, he was left holding a $250,000 “robotic aquarium” — his time period for the idle Picnic machines now sitting in his restaurant.
“I used to be so pissed I began my very own robotic firm,” he mentioned, referencing Motobotics, a brand new and separate entity from Moto Pizza, to construct his personal pizza-making machines. He’s partnering with the Igor Institute and Contemporary Consulting, which is a part of the Northwest Robotic Alliance.
However he nonetheless has his eye on Picnic — or no matter it’s subsequent. Of the thriller purchaser, he mentioned, “I need to know in the event that they’re simply going to make use of the IP, or in the event that they’re going to attempt to resurrect Picnic.”
