Chipotle announced a minority investment in Brassica, a Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant concept and Lumachain, an artificial intelligence supply chain platform, as part of its $100 million Cultivate Next venture fund.
Lumachain is an Australian-based, minority, female-founded company that has developed a real-time traceability solution that tracks the origin, location, and condition of individual items in a supply chain, from farm-to-table, helping reduce waste. Its platform uses computer vision AI to monitor operations within food production plants to enhance quality and safety.
“The visibility in real-time and quality data analytics that Lumachain’s software provides could optimize the management and quality of perishable goods for the food service industry,” said Curt Garner, chief customer and technology officer at Chipotle.
Brassica, based in Columbus, Ohio, was founded in 2015 and is dedicated to using healthy, locally sourced ingredients at its six restaurant locations. Like Chipotle, it features a front-line ordering experience, with signature items including house-made falafel, pita, antibiotic-free meats, and roasted vegetables.
Brassica is an Ohio-based fast-casual restaurant serving wholesome, Eastern Mediterranean-inspired cuisine.
The funding from Chipotle will support Brassica’s expansion into new locations and markets.
The investment also marks Chipotle’s first foray into a restaurant concept through the Cultivate Next fund. Previously, Chipotle explored other concepts including Farmesa Fresh Eatery. The farm-to-table concept opened within a Kitchen United MIX food hall in Santa Monica in 2023 but ultimately shuttered following Kitchen United’s closing of its ghost kitchens.
Since introducing the Cultivate Next fund in 2022, Chipotle has continued to make early-stage investments in companies that align with a focus on sustainability and automation.
This includes partnerships with Hyphen for an automated makeline and Vebu for its automated avocado slicer, known as the Autocado. In September, Chipotle reported that both Hyphen and the Autocado were officially operational in restaurants, with Hyphen at the Chipotle location in Corona del Mar, California, and the Autocado at the Huntington Beach unit.
