Earlier than the pandemic, Lee Kindell ran a journey hostel in Seattle, the place he was identified for the tasty pizza he served his company. A pair years and a pandemic later, he’s operating Seattle’s hottest restaurant and has simply closed his first spherical of funding.
In an interview with The Spoon, Kindell has revealed that MOTO Pizza has raised $1.85 million in funding from what he describes as strategic, non-public “non-venture capital” funding. He says the brand new funding will assist the corporate execute on its plans for the following twelve months, plans which embrace the chain’s first transfer exterior of Washington State.
Based on Kindell, MOTO will open its first location in California in Indian Wells, a metropolis in Coachella Valley nestled between Palm Desert and La Quinta. California’s first MOTO will reside throughout the Indian Wells Tennis Backyard tennis facility, the place it would serve up pizza at massive occasions such because the Indian Wells Tennis Open in March 2024. The corporate additionally has plans to increase to new places inside Washington State, together with up north to Bellingham and over on the east facet in Bellevue.
Past retailer growth, MOTO is increasing its know-how portfolio, together with trialing a salad-bowl robotic from Vancouver’s Cibotica. For Cibotica, which publicly debuted its bowl meals robotic final week, MOTO is their first introduced trial accomplice within the US.
Kindell informed The Spoon that MOTO may even begin supply by way of drone in 2024, signing a cope with Zipline to ship pizza by the top of subsequent yr. Final month, Zipline achieved a big milestone when it launched its first “past visible line of sight” (BLVS) supply. MOTO is the second pizza accomplice for Zipline in Washington state after the corporate introduced it was working with Pagliacci in Might.
Kindell mentioned that whereas he’s heard from a number of VCs taken with investing in MOTO, a modest funding felt proper for the approaching yr.
“We felt prefer it was too early for us to lift by means of VC,” mentioned Kindell. “We needed to benefit from the demand and a focus for MOTO and use it to develop, whereas implementing the brand new know-how into our development. I believe we could have the mannequin we’ve been working exhausting in the direction of subsequent yr, after which we will put collectively an enormous elevate. We’ve already captured some consideration with some VC, and that’s fairly thrilling.”
“My finish sport is a profitable autonomous pizza operation, and I can’t look forward to it!”
