Ingredients in your burrito bowl could be grown by agbots; Chipotle’s $50M venture fund wraps investment in Kansas robotics startup

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A minority investment from Chipotle Mexican Grill’s $50 million Cultivate Next venture fund is expected to help bring a Kansas tech company’s autonomous weeding robots into the fold as the California-based restaurant chain looks to the future of sustainable agriculture for consumers’ next meal.

Chipotle’s downtown restaurant at Power & Light in Kansas City; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News

Greenfield Robotics — which uses advanced AI, robotics, and sensing technologies to make regenerative farming more efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable — deploys fleets of autonomous, lightweight robots to cut weeds between rows of broadacre crops, day or night, reducing dependence on herbicides as well as risk for farmers.

From the archives: This new agrobot could be the future of farming: chemical-free and swarming in a field near you

“The work of Greenfield Robotics to build out a tech-forward alternative to herbicides plays an important role in ensuring a more sustainable future for the agricultural industry,” said Curt Garner, chief customer and technology officer for Chipotle. “We will help Greenfield Robotics scale their robotic offerings and explore how their robots can be deployed on farms within our supply chain.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Clint Brauer, Greenfield Robotics

With its Cultivate Next investment, Greenfield Robotics plans to continue its efforts to develop its fleet of autonomous agricultural robots and develop additional capabilities for forthcoming iterations of its robots, including micro-spraying, cover crop planting, and soil testing.

“Like Chipotle’s commitment to ‘Food with Integrity,’ we believe in the future of real, responsibly and sustainably raised food,” said Clint Brauer, founder of Cheney, Kansas-based Greenfield Robotics. “In partnership with Chipotle, we can continue to explore creative solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing farmers across the United States.”

Cultivate Next makes early-stage investments into strategically aligned companies that further Chipotle’s mission to “Cultivate a Better World” and help accelerate the company’s aggressive growth plans, the company said in a press release. Chipotle is seeking opportunities that will elevate the human experience for its restaurant teams and suppliers as well as increase access and convenience for its guests, it continued.

Nitricity leverages air, water, and renewable energy from artificial lightning to produce a cleaner, more sustainable, and cost-efficient fertilizer; photo courtesy of Nitricity

As part of the latest cohort of Cultivate Next investments, Chipotle also announced a minority investment in Nitricity, a new age fertilizer company based in San Francisco, with ties to Kansas ag innovator and investor Josh Svaty.

RELATED: Why Bay Area investors are shifting their gaze from tech to on-the-ground ag innovations

Locally, Nitricity also completed Black and Veatch’s Kansas City-based IngiteX Climate Tech Accelerator in 2022.

The company leverages air, water, and renewable energy from artificial lightning to produce a cleaner, more sustainable, and cost-efficient fertilizer. The goal: Limit the emissions from fertilizer distribution and application.

Nitricity has started field trials for its fertilizer product with Salinas Valley farmers in California, including Chipotle suppliers in the region. Funding from Cultivate Next will be used to scale up Nitricity’s production of nitrogen, build out the company’s infrastructure, and support the launch of its first commercial product within the next two years.

“Fertilizers have experienced steep price increases in recent years due to supply chain issues, fossil fuel price volatility, and rising distribution costs,” said Jack Hartung, chief financial and administrative officer for Chipotle. “Nitricity’s fertilizer offering not only has the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of the fertilizer industry, but it can be a cost-effective solution for growers in our supply chain.”

Nitricity is committed to producing fertilizer that is optimized for farmers, not factory production or freight distribution, said Nico Pinkowski, co-founder and CEO of Nitricity.

“Partnering with Chipotle will unquestionably accelerate our path toward disrupting the industry with climate-smart technology,” he said.

Click here to learn more about the Cultivate Next venture fund. Companies interested in collaborating with Chipotle through the Cultivate Next venture fund can apply by emailing cultivatenext@chipotle.com