Today, Piestro, the robotic pizzeria that’s crafting high-quality artisan pizza, announced it is partnering with 800° Pizza, the international pizza brand by world-renowned chef Anthony Carron, to offer consumers a fully automated culinary experience, equipped with an authentic, custom pizza recipe designed for Piestro’s unique cooking technology.
Chef Carron has always taken an imaginative approach to pizza making. When establishing the first 800° Pizza location in 2012, he set forth to pair fresh, great-tasting ingredients with a woodfired oven to produce artisan pizzas in just 90 seconds. The success of 800° Pizza continued with national and international expansion into 2020, but as the pandemic hit, the entire restaurant industry faced new customer service constraints and the acute challenge of keeping up with the exploding demand for delivery-based dining.
The new dynamics of delivery/takeout culture and increased consumer pressure for more convenient food choices put a strain on restaurants’ access to labor and their ability to maintain high levels of quality and consistency. Even with 800° Pizza’s impressive cooking speed, Chef Carron and the team believed they needed to do more to future-proof the brand and maintain the standards of excellence the chain has come to be known for. With his forward-thinking mindset, Chef Carron saw the promise of automation when a trusted industry colleague, Massimo Noja De Marco, reached out to discuss his latest venture – automated pizzeria, Piestro.
“When Massimo and I first connected about Piestro’s technology, I saw both the immediate and long-term impact automation could have on our business,” says Carron. “Knowing Massimo’s exceptional background and the emphasis he places on quality and consistency in his machines, I knew this was a partnership we needed to make happen. We immediately began the process of developing recipes using the same imported, fresh and flavorful ingredients that made 800° Pizza so successful, and we were off to the races.”
Leading the charge in the industry for a new age of automation and paving the way for new brand and business growth, the partnership will bring a completely new version of the 800° Pizza brand to high-traffic, easy-to-access locations through “800° by Piestro” machines. The partnership, which is kicking off with a projected order volume of 3,600 units to be produced and sold by Piestro over five years, will allow customers everywhere to experience the best ingredients and a perfect bite of consistently delicious artisan pizza – designed by two world-class pizza aficionados – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
“This partnership is a clear indicator of the interest and potential for automation within the pizza industry,” says De Marco, CEO of Piestro. “I’ve known Chef Carron for years, and he exemplifies the spirit of operators dedicated to their craft, committed to delivering customers an unforgettable dining experience. The contactless cooking capabilities, fresh taste, speed and consistency that our automation and breakthrough oven technology brings instantly aligned with the values of 800° Pizza to provide customers an exceptional culinary experience. We can’t wait to give customers everywhere access to an international pizza brand with a robotic twist.”
Piestro continues to see traction with investors in their crowdfunding campaign, which is currently underway on StartEngine. The platform gives more everyday investors an opportunity to capitalize on the $46.3 billion U.S. pizza market and be a part of shaping the future of the industry by investing in Intelligent Automation. The campaign is set to end September 30.
Piestro is backed by experts in the food automation space. Its lead investor, Wavemaker Partners, is a global venture capital fund with over $550M assets under management, and its studio, Wavemaker Labs, focuses directly on automation.
