Sweetgreen to acquire robot-powered Boston restaurant SpyceSweetgreen to acquire robot-powered Boston restaurant Spyce

Joanna Fantozzi

Los Angeles-based fast-casual restaurant chain Sweetgreen announced Tuesday the imminent acqusition of Spyce: a two-unit lunch bowls based out of Boston. Spyce has similar DNA to Sweetgreen, with its focus on grains and greens, but is also known for its robot-powered kitchen developed by MIT engineers.

With the acquisition, Sweetgreen said that it would be able to use Spyce’s automation technology ramp up the “quality, consistency, and efficiency” of their own “healthy fast food” brand.

“Spyce and Sweetgreen have a shared purpose,” said Jonathan Neman, co-founder and CEO of Sweetgreen, in a statement. “We built Sweetgreen to connect more people to real food and create healthy fast food at scale for the next generation, and Spyce has built state-of-the-art technology that perfectly aligns with that vision. By joining forces with their best-in-class team, we will be able to elevate our team member experience, provide a more consistent customer experience and bring real food to more communities.”

The main goals following the acquisition will be to allow Sweetgreen employees to focus more on hospitality and guest interaction than prepping food, invest in training for team members to learn new technology-based skills, improve customer wait times and order consistency, and enhance its menu while relying on new robotic technology.

“As operators in the healthy, fast casual space, sweetgreen has long been the brand that we have most admired,” said Michael Farid, co-founder and CEO of Spyce, in a statement. “We’re excited to come on board to join another inspiring, founder-led company, and to work together to blaze the trail for the future of this industry.”

This news was announced just two months after Sweetgreen filed for an IPO.

The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021 and is subject to customary closing conditions.

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