Picnic, previously known as Otto Robotics and Vivid Robotics, is a robotics startup that focuses on food production.
Picnic operates on a “robotics-as-a-service” model, with users paying for the system on a subscription basis.
Picnic was founded in 2016 and is based in Seattle, Washington.
Picnic makes modular pizza assembly robots capable of topping hundreds of pizzas an hour. These automated machines can be placed in a row, with each one dispensing their own ingredients.
Picnic's secoond generation robot featured a switch to transparent walls and containers so operators could see in real time when toppings need to be refilled. Picnic's modular system is the first of its kind. It can perform any number of food assembly tasks in any order.
Picnic’s business model is essentially pizza-as-a-service. Restaurant owners pay a regular fee in return for the system and ongoing maintenance as well as software and hardware updates.
Picnic is backed by Vulcan Capital, Thursday Ventures, Flying Fish Partners, Creative Ventures, Arnold Venture Group and others. The company raised an additional $4.2M to its Series A on Jul 21, 2021, bringing the Series A total to $20.5M. This brings Picnic's total funding to $44.2M to date.
