Piestro Investors Might be Sitting on a Windfall After Joint Venture with 800 Degree's Kitchen Announced

For those that don’t know what I am talking about, Piestro recently closed an equity crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine that valued the company at $12m. The company makes artisanal pizzas in automated kiosks, similar to large vending machines. For the especially curious, this is what they're said to look like:

While there isn't anything particularly new about the idea, they seem to be doing it better than anyone else.

They are backed by WaveMaker Labs, a leader in startups focused on robotics and automation. Wavemaker backs the likes of some of the most promising robotics startups like Bobacino, Miso Robotics, and Graze Autonomous Mowers.

Another promising fact is they recently announced a partnership with 800 Degrees Kitchen, a deal valued at $530m. Little was known about this deal until just recently when a joint venture and subsequent equity crowdfunding raise was announced for the venture valued at $60m.

Little is known about the specifics of this deal, but with an official joint venture announced, and the fact that they are raising money and taking on investors, it’s significantly less likely the deal will fall through at this point. Further, since the venture is raising funds at $60m valuation, and assuming Piestro owns a healthy portion of this, that could mean Piestro is valued well beyond the $60m between this, the other $30m in LOI’s, furtherance of their tech. Not to mention, any new deals they have since been formed. A joint venture in this context typically means this is a jointly owned subsidiary, and they both own large portions of the company.

They most likely took this route because 800 Degrees wanted to invest in this technology, but Piestro did not want to sell a large stake in their company after already selling nearly 50% of their company in equity crowdfunding. It also probably isn’t in the best interest of Piestro to have 800 degrees be a large stockholder because they would most likely want to use the product solely for their own benefit, where Piestro wants to branch out and sell to multiple customers. It would be like if a hedge fund invested into a company that had the best investing software in the business. They wouldn't want to sell it to anyone else, because then they would no longer have an edge.

All this amounts to the potential for 5–10x paper gains for anyone that happened to invest in Piestro at these earlier valuations. Like most corporations, it’s pretty normal for them to keep things close to the vest and lean on the side of caution, so who knows what else is going on behind the scenes. Any way it shakes out though, it's definitely looking pretty strong for anyone that happened to invest in that 6 million, or 12 million dollar valuations the previous months and years.

I was actually skeptical about this technology at first, not because I didn't think they could do it, but how well they could compete. Pizza vending machines aren't new. They've actually been around for nearly a decade. You just don't seem them around anywhere, because they've got issues. Waiting around for the pizza to cook, and then you get... vending machine pizza? The pizza isn't great, the logistics to stock it aren't great, and there's plenty of companies doing it. That being said, my sentiment has definitely changed due to this, and I actually ended up investing right before the wire. Needless to say, I am definitely pleased with my investment.

It’s not too late to invest

There are a few big things to note here. First, you can’t invest in their Equity Crowdfunding round, but you might be able to invest later when they go on StartEngine Secondary. As well, the joint venture itself is also currently raising. It’s important to note that this is ONLY the joint venture between the two companies you’re investing in, not Piestro itself. For those interested though, here's the link: https://800degreesgo.com/