Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) is making minority investments in two new businesses, Lumachain and Brassica, as part of the Newport Beach restaurant chain’s $100 million Cultivate Next venture fund.
Lumachain is a Sydney-based AI supply chain platform which tracks the origin, location and condition of perishable goods “from farm to table,” even monitoring operations inside food production plants.
The Columbus-based Brassica is a fast-casual build-your-own-meal concept that serves Eastern Mediterranean-inspired cuisine similar to industry leader Cava. It counts six locations and will use the investment to open new stores and expand to new markets, according to Chipotle’s Chief Business Development Officer Nate Lawton.
Chipotle’s investment portfolio, which started in 2022, so far includes GreenField Robotics, Hyphen, Local Line, Meati Foods, Nitricity, Vebu and Zero Acre Farms.
Shares were unchanged during midday trading at $59.79 apiece with a market cap of $82 billion.
