Oath Craft Pizza, the fast-casual pizza restaurant with its proprietary pizza crust and sustainably sourced toppings, has raised $7M in a series B funding round led by Boston-based venture capital firm Breakaway Ventures. With this funding, the pizza restaurant has raised a total of $16M since its inception in 2015.
The most recent funding news comes as Oath Craft Pizza announces plans to expand on the East Coast with the opening of additional locations in 2017, including their first restaurant outside of the Boston area, which will open later this fall in the D.C. area, inside the Mosaic District, an upscale shopping and dining complex in Fairfax County, Virginia.
Oath Craft Pizza’s next Boston area restaurant opening later this summer will be located in the Central Square neighborhood in Cambridge near MIT’s campus [181 Massachusetts Avenue]. The Central Square restaurant marks their sixth location, joining four existing Boston area restaurants as well as the original location in Nantucket. This fall, Oath Craft Pizza will also open a new restaurant in the heart of the Fenway neighborhood of Boston [1350 Boylston]. The company selected these locations to meet the growing demand from people living, studying and working in these neighborhoods who are looking for unique better tasting and more healthful food options. Beyond these three new locations, the company has plans to continue its growth throughout Boston and around the East Coast with possible additional shops opening within the next year, and is also moving into a larger new office space in the Sears Crescent Building, a historic brick-and-beam office located on Boston’s City Hall Plaza, this August.
Founded in November 2015 with a small shop in Nantucket and a trade secret pizza crust recipe, Oath Craft Pizza has gained a following in the region for its proprietary crispy thin crust pizzas made with 100 npercent pure grain North Dakota Mills Flour that are grilled and seared in pure avocado oil, and for its innovative menu of chef-driven savory and sweet pizzas made with fresh, sustainably sourced ingredients. Beyond its pizza, Oath is committed to serving the communities they are in by supporting local causes and events.
While Oath Craft Pizza continues to grow, it is deepening its commitment to offering sustainably sourced food. The company has just received Humane Farm Animal Care’s (HFAC) Certified Humane approval, certifying that its toppings are sourced from farms that meet the program’s standards of ethical and humane animal treatment. Working with farms such as North Country Smokehouse and Pederson’s Natural Farms, Oath Craft Pizza is the first pizza brand to receive the designation.
“When you think ethically-sourced food, you may not always think pizza, but that’s something we are changing,” says Patrik Hellstrand, CEO of Oath Craft Pizza. “We’re sourcing ingredients free from chemical additives, hormones and antibiotics because we’re committed to doing the right thing for our guests and the food system.”
“Since the beginnings of Oath in 2015 our goal has been to transform fast casual through great food coupled with a unique business model applying a small footprint multi-format approach. We have made great progress and since Patrik’s joining late last year, we are now materially accelerating under his leadership,” says John Burns Oath Chairman and Breakaway CEO.