Zume, Inc. (formerly Zume Pizza)

Zume, Inc. (formerly Zume Pizza) is an American company headquartered in Mountain View, California.

History

2023: Company Closure

On June 3, 2023, it became known that the developer of robotic pizzerias Zume was curtailing its activities. The project faced a number of difficulties, and therefore the management decided to completely close it.

Zume's idea is to use special trucks equipped with robots for automated pizza cooking. The company raised a total of approximately $450 million for development. Among the investors, in particular, was the Vision Fund of SoftBank Group.

Robotic pizza developer Zume curtails activities

It was assumed that Zume robots would cook pizza directly in a delivery van. Thus, customers could receive the most fresh product. However, the practical implementation of the concept was difficult: it turned out that pizza simply falls apart while baking in moving trucks. In 2020, Zume was forced to cut more than half of its workforce. The company abandoned its own pizza production, switching to more promising areas, including technology in the field of eco-friendly packaging.

Zume is focused on creating a smarter and more sustainable ecosystem. The company is driving the transition from plastic bagging to eco-friendly shaped fiber packaging based on patented technology. We produce products with a unique design that are made from various types of biomass. Our customers are customers from the fields of public catering, health care, etc., the company says.

But the reorganization did not allow the business to be preserved, and Zume is forced to close. Zume has hired business restructuring firm Sherwood Partners to sell its assets, The Information reported. The company itself does not comment on the situation in any way.^[1]

2020:67% staff cut

In mid-April 2020, it became known about mass layoffs at Zume Pizza. The company cut 200 jobs, or roughly 67% of the total. Moreover, in January, about 400 working positions were already liquidated.

Zume Pizza notified employees of the mass layoffs by sending them letters to email addresses. The company planned to make a statement in the format of a video conference due to the transition of personnel to remote work, but ultimately stopped at e-mail.

It became known about mass layoffs in Zume Pizza

Many of the current positions at Zume will no longer exist, and we deeply regret that we must say goodbye to many of our valuable friends and colleagues, "Alex Garden CEO said in a letter.

According to him, mass layoffs have become a necessary measure due to a decrease in funding since March 2020 and the crisis caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Mass quarantine has greatly affected the customer base and supply chain of Zume, he stated.

Until recently, we had at least three potential investors, they refused to invest in Zume due to the impact of COVID-19 on their business, Garden said.

According to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, in January 2020, Zume abandoned the business of producing robots for cooking and delivering pizza, after which the startup's valuation could fall below $1 billion against $4 billion in the fall of 2019.^[2] The company also decided to focus^[3] on manufacturing food packaging and providing automated production and delivery systems to food manufacturers.^[4]

2017: Raising $48 million in investments, including from Grishin Robotics

In October 2017, Zume Pizza announced a $48 million investment, including from Grishin Robotics, co-founder of Mail.ru Group Dmitry Grishin.

Zume Pizza is a 2017-founded manufacturer of pizza-making robots on a large scale. The company is also developing projects in the field of biodegradable packaging for food.

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