Chipotle, Taco Bell Parent Invest in Tech

Check out the latest investments linked to Orange County’s two largest restaurant operators for further proof digital wasn’t just a sales trend to get through 2020.  

Last month, Newport Beach-based Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) went in on a $500 million Series C round for Nuro. The autonomous delivery company in Silicon Valley uses robots to power its fleet, with a focus on helping shore up efficiencies and reduce costs for the last mile in deliveries.
 
For Chipotle, which saw 2020 digital sales spike 174%, the investment makes sense when factoring in the fact that half of those digital sales were fueled by delivery.
 
Couple that with the company’s Chipotlanes—a feature similar to drive-thru for digital orders—and the digital kitchens aimed at servicing mobile, it’s clear where the company’s head is at.
 
Said Chief Technology Officer Curt Garner, “Nuro could change the traditional delivery model and we believe consumers are going to continue to seek options and additional access points for how and where they enjoy their food.”
 
Looking at alternatives to the traditional way of doing things was part of why Yum Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM), the parent to Taco Bell Corp. and The Habit Burger Grill of Irvine, decided on a similar move last month when it revealed its purchase of Israel-based Tictuk Technologies.
 
Tictuk specializes in ordering and marketing through platforms such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, QR codes and other social media and chat technologies.  

The tech’s already been used at some 900 KFCs, Pizza Huts and Taco Bells internationally with the aim to continue increasing its use across Yum’s brands.
 
Tictuk comes on the heels of Yum’s buy of Kvantum, an artificial intelligence firm, earlier in March.

Yum said it made $17 billion in digital sales last year. That’s a record year for digital with the channel seeing growth of about 45% from the year-ago period.