Today I will break down Piestro (pronounced Pie-EH-stroh or PIE-stroh, you can judge for yourself from the video below!). Piestro has successfully developed a machine that AUTOMATES the pizza-making process.
This has the potential to REVOLUTIONIZE the pizza-making business!
YES – we are talking about a PIZZA-MAKING ROBOT that can produce restaurant quality pizza in under three minutes. The company has plans not only to sell its machines to other pizza-making franchises, but to place these machines at airports, schools, universities, or apartment buildings. In addition, Piestro plans to distribute its branded pods throughout the world!
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If you’re like me and this idea intrigues you, I encourage you to watch this VIDEO to dig into Piestro and the future of pizza!
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“Why Do This?”
Do you really have to ask…“Why do this?” Yes, the answer is THAT obvious– to reduce costs and increase speed. And who wouldn’t want a delicious, customized pizza made by a robot in less than three minutes at basically a push of the button? Does this make you think of something???
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You can find out more about how to invest here.
How does Piestro work?
Piestro is essentially a fully-automated mini pizzeria such that pizzas are made fresh and on demand. Crust makes its way down the line as sauce, cheese, and toppings are applied. It then goes into a special oven, and is finally cut and boxed. The speedy procedure is contactless (think: no dirty fingers or rogue hairs!) and customers receive their order from a locker when it’s ready. They can even watch the machine work its robotic magic through a clear window!
(For those of you who remember, think of Lucy and Ethel working on the chocolate production line but instead replaced by robots who do not miss a beat…)
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The following is what Piestro’s CEO, Mr. Massimo De Marco–a native of ITALY–had to say about Piestro (from https://www.startengine.com/piestro):
On vending machines, we don’t consider ourselves to be part of this ‘trend.’ Piestro is truly an automated pizzeria – we aren’t frozen food, and we don’t compromise on taste for speed. We are a true producer of artisanal pizza with restaurant level quality that past machines simply didn’t deliver in terms of key components like flavor, texture and ingredients.
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Hungry yet? I am!
You can find out more about how to invest here
Who Leads Piestro?
Massimo De Marco is the current CEO of Piestro (founded in 2017) and is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA (per crunchbase.com). Mr. De Marco was named one of the top 10 restaurant innovators in National Restaurant News power list and has an extensive history working with companies to use technology in innovative ways in the food service industry.
Massimo De Marco
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CEO
Founder, Kitchen United
COO, PH+E Consulting
VP of Ops, SBE Entertainment Group
Regional Director, Wolfgang Puck
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One of Mr. De Marco’s many accomplishments involved the launch of Kitchen United, a ghost kitchen company that provides professional kitchen space to restaurants for the preparation of delivery-only meals. Brick-and-mortar restaurants can expand without adding extra staff or space, while other restaurants can exist with no dine-in service at all.
De Marco’s Kitchen United successfully raised $50M in venture capital and was most recently valued at $140M (https://www.startengine.com/piestro).
In his latest position as CEO of Piestro, Mr. De Marco is taking his experience and combining it with innovative robotics technology developed at Wavemaker Labs. Further, according to SEC filings, Piestro is financially backed by Wavemaker Partners. This has allowed access not only to seed capital but also to an experienced team of engineers and business professionals from the likes of Walt Disney Imagineering, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Boston Dynamics and Virgin Hyperloop. For the complete team, please refer to the company’s website.
You can find out more about how to invest here.
Food and Robotics as an Attractive Investment
The profit margins of a full-service restaurant (FSR) are extremely low, usually between 3-6% (www.restaurant365.com). An FSR typically includes table service and more involved customer service experiences, spanning casual dining to a fine-dining experience. With increased labor costs and inflation in today’s challenging environment, FSRs do not have much buffer and can easily fall below that 3-6% profit margin range.
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On the other hand, fast-casual restaurants, also known as fast food or quick-service restaurants, typically have an average profit margin of 6-9% (www.restaurant365.com). This profit margin reflects, in general, the lower labor costs for pre-prepared food in the kitchen and a higher table turnover rate due to faster service.
These fairly low-profit margins as well as the high startup costs of traditional restaurants (with a median cost of $375,000 according to Restaurant Owner), present a huge opportunity for this industry to be disrupted, especially by advancements in technology.
Cue Piestro.
Piestro’s state-of-the-art automation not only significantly reduces labor costs but also allows for 24/7 operation. On top of that, its small footprint also lowers real estate costs DRASTICALLY. Piestro projects that operators can more than DOUBLE their profit margins compared to operating traditional pizzerias (based on management’s evaluation of available information in fast-casual restaurants). YES…that is worth restating…
Piestro has the potential to more than DOUBLE the profit generated by traditional pizzerias.
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You can find out more about how to invest here.
The Pizza Market
To understand the magnitude of these profit margins and their potential, let’s make a quick pivot to the overall pizza market.
The global pizza market was worth $154.8B in 2019 and is projected to hit $233.3B by 2023. YES…that number is in Billions! And guess which country accounted for the most pizza market share?You got it – the United States, where – on any given day – about 13% (or 1 in 8) of Americans eat pizza! We’re Number !!
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Thus it is not surprising that in 2019, the U.S. accounted for 30% of the global market share worth $46.3B. And this market is projected to be worth $53.8B in 2023!
Any increase in profit margin percentages (let alone a 33% potential increase as put forth by Piestro), should be more than enough to pique anyone’s interest!
You can find out more about how to invest here.
DUAL revenue streams
Piestro is not involved in opening its own restaurants at this stage, therefore, it is not as exposed to the risks that opening a restaurant entails. However, the company does plan to sell directly to pizza-loving customers, including placing these units at stadiums, shopping malls and office buildings throughout the world (see the MAP at the end!).
But even MORE of an opportunity–Piestro already has $580 million in pre-orders via commercial contracts with a number of different brands. This type of arrangement Piestro has with other companies is called white-labeling. White-labeling is where a product is produced by one company (Piestro) and other companies (see below for partnerships) rebrand Piestro’s pizza to make it appear as though they had made it…GENIUS!
So let’s take a look at some of these potentially highly lucrative partnerships.
One of Piestro’s major customers who already has plans to purchase thousands of machines is 800 Degrees Pizza. 800 Degrees Pizza is the international pizza brand by renowned chef Anthony Carron. 800° Woodfired Kitchen is an innovative take on the art of cooking with wood fire.
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Currently, 800 degrees has 16 locations worldwide and 10 in the U.S. The global chain aims to expand its footprint with a projected 3,600 Piestro units over the next five years, which would represent a commercial value of over $530M.
Along with 800 degrees Pizza, Piestro has partnered with Carbone Restaurant Group (CRG). CRG is one of Canada’s fastest-growing pizza brands. This commercial franchise partnership between Piestro and CRG is valued at approximately $50M, and will provide CRG with the tools needed to SCALE its operations.
The company plans to market “Powered by Piestro” to franchisees, with the goal of deploying up to 500+ units across Canada! Like Piestro, CRG has a proven and experienced management team with over 40 years of combined experience in business development, marketing, and franchising.
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Competitors
As stated, traditional pizzerias are expensive to run. Operating a full-service pizza restaurant doesn’t leave you with a lot of leftover “dough,” which makes this space super attractive for innovation. So let’s talk about several direct competitors in the pizza automation space, including Picnic, Basil Street, and Let’s Pizza, among others.
In comparison with these companies, Piestro believes it is the only business that combines an experienced team of engineers with a management and advisory board that has deep experience in the restaurant industry and in food automation. This includes experience at Kitchen United and Miso Robotics – creator of Flippy, the burger-flipping robot.
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Flippy, the Burger-Flipping Robot – Let’s Go!
Furthermore, Domino’s pizza is the behemoth in this industry. However, Piestro’s white-labeling partnerships will allow other, more direct competitors to Domino’s more efficient and economical ways to scale their operations and compete with this titan!
Impact on Jobs
What about jobs? Will these pizza-making robots take away jobs from people? People might not be needed to toss the dough but they are still needed to make the dough, build the machines, to program the code, and to maintain the machines.
And…as we’ve seen with disruptive companies like Amazon (AMZN), technology and robotics can lead to lower costs and increased economies of scale leading to more cost-effective and efficient solutions for both the business and consumers alike.
Investors
The lead investor in Piestro is Wavemaker Partners, which is headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore and manages over $550M in assets. Wavemaker is a top 10% early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2003. It has a strong track record of building commercially successful robotics companies like Miso Robotics and Graze. As stated previously, the financial backing of Wavemaker has allowed Piestro access not only to seed capital but also to an experienced team of engineers and business professionals
You can find out more about how to invest here.
Types of Investment Opportunities
The SEC is very strict about what we are allowed to tell you about this round of funding, in fact we are not allowed to say much at all. To check out the full details of how much you can invest, how much the company is raising and any bonuses early investors are entitled to head over to the offering site here.
To Summarize…
I can’t say enough good things about Piestro. The potential of this technology to disrupt the #1 food business in the world is astounding. You need to look no further than the market leader in the industry, Domino’s Pizza, and how it has expanded by embracing technology.
Piestro has the potential to disrupt the market leader and help increase the profit margins of ALL who adopt its technology.. This type of technology would also give the market leaders pause to think about a buyout down the line. We all know what happened to Blockbuster after it refused an offer to buyout Netflix and laughed themselves into bankruptcy, while Netflix took over the world with its superior technology!
By becoming an investor, you have the opportunity to become a venture capitalist and be an owner of Piestro and all of its future business prospects on the ground floor! This business looks to have a bright future ahead, and with this raise Piestro will be able to expand its operations significantly in the coming months/years ahead.
This really is an opportunity to become a part of the future of pizza! See the following map for where they are STRIVING to operate one day:
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*Piestro is not in the above locations and does not have contracts or agreements for the units in the above locations, but this represents a future vision for the company.
In sum, you can’t stop progress and Piestro is on the cutting-edge of pizza automation technology. Its management team is WORLD-CLASS, with years of experience in the food industries, robot technology and running successful businesses. I believe – and more importantly – THEY believe they have what it takes to take on the giants and transform how pizza is prepared for consumers worldwide.
Piestro’s next challenge is SCALING. By producing and distributing enough machines to take over the industry and cause some real headaches for the market leaders! This offering will be the first step in helping Piestro to do just that!
PIZZA AUTOMATION HAS ARRIVED
INVEST
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