• Nala Robotics, an AI-powered multi-cuisine robotic restaurant, has partnered with Chicago-based pizza brand Slice Factory to supply its autonomous pizza-making robot “Pizzaiola”—marking the first customer partnership for the system.

• Nala Robotics will customize the units for Slice Factory, enabling the robot to cook the latter’s 28-inch pizzas, Chicago-style stuffed pizzas, pasta dishes, and chicken wings.

• Slice Factory also expects to expand its footprint nationally up from its current 12 locations in Chicago by leveraging Nala Robotics’ technology.

• Nala Robotics also revealed that it has more partnerships for Pizzaiola units in the pipeline.

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake : The news of the first customer partnership comes just three weeks after the Nala Robotics introduced Pizzaiola, a robot primarily pitched toward pizza making but can also be configured to prepare pasta, salads, burgers, wings, etc. We believe the partnership with Slice Pizza coupled with the ones in the pipeline could help the company to expand its footprint faster—something noteworthy for a company founded only last year. In contrast, peer startup Picnic founded in 2016, opened its robotic units for pre-orders only in 2021. </ul>