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 e mail to collectors and buyers, Picnic was unable to pay its money owed and on Could 11 executed a Normal Project for the Advantage of Collectors, a state-law course of that enables an bancrupt firm to liquidate its property exterior of chapter. A Santa Monica, Calif.-based liquidator, CMBG Advisors Inc., was named to deal with the wind-down.
“CMBG might 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.
Actually, a purchaser for these property and Picnic’s mental property has since been discovered, stated James Baer, founder and president of CMBG, talking through cellphone Friday afternoon.
“I need to be respectful of privateness points, however I’ll disclose that we did promote the corporate,” Baer stated. He declined to disclose the title of the customer, the acquisition worth 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 reside, 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 deal with one of many meals trade’s most persistent challenges: the excessive price and inconsistency of handbook meals preparation. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital was amongst those who funded the corporate’s seed spherical.
Its signature product, the Picnic Pizza Station, may 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 lift funding and search new clients 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 clients we’re speaking to throughout every kind of segments,” Wooden stated on the time. “We’re all the things — 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, however it bumped into financial headwinds, struggled to lift extra cash, and was compelled 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 Could 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 little thing they did after that was taking place in some sort of stealth mode, which was weird to me,” Wooden stated. “As a result of all the things I used to be doing was attempting to put it on the market 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. But it surely 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 have 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 on occasion, and one other stated the trash bins have been stuffed with “fascinating supplies” reminiscent of 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 places and is increasing in California.
Kindell was one in all Picnic’s most enthusiastic early clients, saying in 2023 that “robotics is the way forward for meals” as he confirmed off a Pizza Station at his Belltown location. He instructed GeekWire this week that he truly needed to purchase Picnic when he first discovered of the corporate’s monetary troubles.
When the tip lastly got here, he stated, 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 stated, 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 Recent 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 stated, “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.”
