Pizza may be timeless, but the ways restaurant owners bring this pizza from kitchen to consumer mouth could not be more timely. With its ease of delivery, pizza has been at the forefront of the digital shift, and with its relatively straightforward production process, food has been popular with emerging robotics companies aiming to automate restaurant manufacturing lines across the board. fast service (QSR).

Taking note of the bright future of pizza, Seattle-based QSR chain MOD Pizza is looking to try their luck in the public market. On Monday, November 22, the company, which has more than 500 locations in 29 states, announced that it has filed for registration with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to go public through a public offering. initial (IPO).

In May 2019, the company announced a $ 160 million fundraiser from private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, bringing its total funding to $ 339 million. In 2020, the company announced earlier this year, system-wide sales totaled $ 461 million and digital revenue increased 275%.

While the majority of the restaurant industry has been devastated by the events of the past 20 months, pizza-focused QSRs have benefited from the shift to off-premises dining.

“Most certainly, the pandemic has brought a tailwind to the delivery industry, not just for Domino’s Pizza but across the category and frankly across all categories,” Domino’s CEO Ritch Allison told analysts at the meeting. ‘a call discussing the chain’s results in 2020. “And over the year we’ve seen strong growth in both the number of your orders and the growth in the number of tickets in this delivery business. customers of this delivery company tended to order more pizzas. “

While the peak in sales of 2020 has normalized somewhat, pizza remains a popular choice in digital markets. Domino’s has described itself for years before the start of the pandemic as a “tech company that sells pizza,” and with the increase in delivery orders, the company has ramped up its digital investments. In April, for example, the brand launched autonomous delivery in partnership with robotics company Nuro.

See also: Domino’s partners with Nuro to launch autonomous delivery

Robotics is taking over the QSR pizza category not only in delivery but also in production. Several companies have created automated pizza machines, and in August, Seattle-based robotics company Picnic announced the commercial availability of its pizza system, seeing huge demand for pre-orders.

“We’re doing something that for a human isn’t complicated – it’s just difficult,” Picnic CEO Clayton Wood told PYMNTS in an interview earlier this year. “It’s tedious. It requires attention to detail. When you have poorly trained workers it’s hard for them to be consistent… So we think pizza is a great food to automate for that reason. “

Read more: Kitchen automation turns digital order volume from challenge to opportunity

Additionally, pizza has also been at the forefront of the trend for restaurant technology companies to increasingly tailor their offerings to the unique needs of their customers. Take, for example, Slice, a company that offers a digital ordering marketplace, software, marketing tools, and a point of sale (POS) system for independent pizza restaurants.

“In general, our horizontal solutions are incredibly broad and superficial in the way they solve problems… and I think traders end up finding workarounds for the various shortcomings in these systems that are specific to their needs,” he said. Slice CEO Ilir Sela told PYMNTS. in an interview over the summer. “[We have] a highly specialized user interface and vertically integrated products to ensure that the work of the pizza restaurant owner and other staff continues to be more streamlined and easier.