Late last week, grocery microfulfillment (MFC) startup Takeoff Technologies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing its inability to scale customer pilots beyond the three sites per customer required for profitability amidst macroeconomic headwinds. The eight-year-old startup had raised $86mm in equity at a $500mm valuation before raising a last-ditch SAFE note from a Florida-based family office last year. Takeoff had seven customers such as Albertsons, Woolworths, Carrefour, Wakefern, and Hy-Vee that deployed 24 systems across the US, Canada, Australia, India, and the UAE. Two of those customers comprised over two-thirds of its revenue, which shrunk by 33% last year to $27.3mm. The business generated an operating loss of $63mm in ‘23 despite $17mm of cost-cutting in the first half of the year. In this week’s deep dive, HNGRY examines the hypothesis that Takeoff formed around the promise of MFC’s bolted on to grocers’ existing stores and some of the key learnings.