Zume Valuation, Funding & Investors
Zume is not operational anymore. Its last reported valuation was $2.3B as of November 2018.
Last Zume valuation
$2.3B
Undisclosed stage · Nov 2018
Last Zume funding round
$375M
Undisclosed stage · Nov 2018
Cumulative funding Zume raised
$446M
across 3 funding rounds
Key investors in Zume
AME Cloud Ventures
SignalFire
Kortschak Investments L.P.
FJ Labs
SoftBank Group
Maveron
About Zume
Zume is a former food-technology company that began as Zume Pizza, an automated pizza maker that cooked pizzas in delivery vehicles on the way to customers. It was founded in 2015 by Alex Garden and Julia Collins and was based in California. In 2020 it dropped pizza delivery and moved into sustainable food packaging and delivery logistics, selling moulded plant-based packaging to food businesses, and it bought the packaging maker Pivot in 2019. The company shut down and liquidated its assets in 2023, and its technology and patents were later bought by Miso Robotics.
Founded
2015
HQ
Los Angeles, CAWebsite
Status
Closed
Customer focus
B2B
Revenue model
Product sales
Valuation
$2.3B (Nov 2018)
Zume Valuation
Zume is insolvent and not operational anymore. Read the announcement ↗
Zume was last valued at $2.3B, based on its undisclosed-stage round in November 2018. Read the announcement ↗
The $375M round was led by SoftBank Group.
Zume's valuation grew 45x from $50M at its undisclosed-stage round in December 2016 to $2.3B in November 2018, across 3 priced rounds.
Zume valuation by funding round
| Date | Stage | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 2023 | Write-down · Insolvency | $0 |
| Nov 2018 | Undisclosed stage | $2.3B |
| Oct 2017 | Series B | $170M |
| Dec 2016 | Undisclosed stage | $50M |
Zume Funding History
Before winding down, Zume has raised a total of $446M across 3 funding rounds.
Zume's first fundraising round was a $23M undisclosed-stage round in December 2016. The most recent completed round was a $375M undisclosed-stage round in November 2018.
Zume funding rounds
| Date | Stage | Investors | Raised | Valuation | Deal Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2018 | Undisclosed stage | SoftBank Group (lead) | $375M | $2.3B | Zume, a Mountain View, California-based startup founded in 2015, developed robotics and automation technology initially for pizza-making and delivery, using 'cobot' culture where humans and robots collaborate to par-bake pizzas that finish cooking in oven-equipped trucks en route to customers. The company raised $375 million from SoftBank Vision Fund in a round reported in early November 2018, bringing its post-money valuation to approximately $2.25 billion, with reports indicating SoftBank planned an additional $375 million investment in the future. CEO Alex Garden stated the funding would support growth, hiring, and expansion of its proprietary technology beyond pizza to other restaurant concepts and food categories. Zume's platform emphasized reducing time and distance between food sources and customers through automation, AI, logistics, and mobile kitchens, positioning it to serve dense population centers efficiently. Prior to this round, Zume had raised about $70 million. The investment aligned with SoftBank's broader bets on food delivery and robotics, including a $535 million lead in DoorDash valued at $4 billion, amid a growing tech arms race in the restaurant industry facing labor shortages and rising delivery demands estimated at $76 billion by 2022. Zume aimed to license its 'Bake on the Way' technology, with partnerships like Pizza Hut testing prototypes to improve customer experience by cooking closer to delivery points. Despite high ambitions likening it to 'Domino’s without the labor component' for profitability, Zume later pivoted from pizza to sustainable packaging and shut down due to insolvency years after. |
| Oct 2017 | Series B | AME Cloud Ventures (lead); SGH CAPITAL; SignalFire; FJ Labs; Vijay Chattha; Kortschak Investments L.P. | $48M | $170M | Zume was a Silicon Valley food-tech startup founded in 2015 that initially focused on robot-powered pizza delivery. The company secured a patent on cooking during delivery with algorithms to predict customer choices and planned to partner with businesses to provide other robot-prepared meal components. In fall 2017, Zume raised $48 million in Series B funding at an approximate $170 million valuation, representing a significant step before its later growth. However, baking pizzas in moving vehicles proved impractical, and customers complained about quality issues with the robot-made pizzas, leading the company to eventually shelve the pizza delivery concept. Following the unsuccessful pizza business model, Zume pivoted to focus on sustainable food packaging and packaging solutions for other food companies. The company subsequently bought Pivot in 2019, a company that made plant-based packaging, to strengthen its position in compostable packaging. In November 2018, just over a year after the Series B round, SoftBank Vision Fund invested $375 million in the company, valuing it at $2.25 billion—a dramatic increase reflecting the market's initial enthusiasm for the pivoted business model, though the company would eventually shut down due to insolvency years later. |
| Dec 2016 | Undisclosed stage | Maveron; SignalFire; AME Cloud Ventures; Kortschak Investments L.P. | $23M | $50M | Zume raised $23 million in venture funding in December 2016, giving it a valuation of $50 million, from AME Cloud Ventures, Maveron, SignalFire and Kortschak Investments. The round was the company's first large raise after an earlier seed-stage financing and came a few months after it delivered its first pizzas in September 2016. Zume had been founded in 2015 as Zume Pizza by Alex Garden and Julia Collins to make pizzas with robots and cook them in delivery vehicles en route to customers. The proceeds were to fund expansion of its Silicon Valley operations. Zume later raised a $48 million round in October 2017 and $375 million from SoftBank in November 2018. |
Who has invested in Zume?
8 investors have backed Zume across its funding rounds, including AME Cloud Ventures, SignalFire, Kortschak Investments L.P., FJ Labs, SoftBank Group and Maveron.
Lead investors include SoftBank Group and AME Cloud Ventures.
Zume Investors
| Investor | HQ | Rounds | Role | First check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco, CA | 2 | Participant | Dec 2016 | |
| San Francisco, CA | 2 | Lead | Dec 2016 | |
| Aspen, CO | 2 | Participant | Dec 2016 | |
| San Francisco, CA | 1 | Participant | Dec 2016 | |
 Luxembourg | 1 | Participant | Oct 2017 | |
 Tokyo | 1 | Lead | Nov 2018 | |
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all 8 Zume investors. Start Free Trial | ||||
Benchmark 350K+ Funding Rounds and Disclosed VC Valuation Multiples
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Start Free TrialAcquisitions by Zume
Zume has acquired 1 company to date.
Last acquisition by Zume was on June 13th 2019. Zume acquired Pivot Packaging for $21M.
Latest Acquisitions by Zume
![](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20"><rect fill="%23e5e7eb" width="20" height="20" rx="4"/></svg>){kind=small} Pivot Packaging | |
| Description | Pivot Packaging is a Mississauga-based supplier of flexible packaging solutions for food, beverage, and consumer products. The company manufactures stand-up pouches, rollstock films, and custom-printed bags using polyethylene and polypropylene materials with capabilities in lamination and high-speed filling lines. |
| HQ Country | |
| HQ City | Los Angeles, CA |
| Deal Date | 13 Jun 2019 |
| Valuation | $21M |
| EV/Revenue | |
| EV/EBITDA | |
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Zume acquisitions and their M&A valuation multiples. Start Free Trial | |
Zume Competitors
Zume competitors included listed companies like Firepoint Energy and Pri0r1ty Intelligence Group, and private ones like Algo Paint, Dynamic Air Cooling, Greener Bio and Hytchers.
| Company | HQ | Status | Revenue | EBITDA | Valuation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Publicly listed | - | - | $4M | |
 United Kingdom | Publicly listed | $234K | ($14M) | $3M | |
 Rennes | Private | - | - | $2M | |
 Poland | Private | - | - | $2M | |
 Alto Alegre | Private | - | - | $2M | |
 Brussels | Private | - | - | $2M |
Zume Public Comps
Zume is defunct now, but its public comps included Maxeon Solar Technologies, Geosolar Technologies, Next-ChemX, OmniTek Engineering, Brenmiller Energy, Sincerity Applied Materials, ReTo Eco-Solutions and Fotovolt Eko Energia.
| Last FY | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EBITDA | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | |
| $509M | ($510M) | 0.6x | - | (0.6x) | - | |||
| $15K | ($3M) | 226.4x | - | (1.0x) | - | |||
| - | ($1M) | - | - | (2.1x) | - | |||
| $1M | $449K | 0.6x | - | 2.1x | - | |||
| $387K | ($13M) | 1.5x | - | (0.0x) | - | |||
| $63K | ($59K) | 12.8x | - | (13.8x) | - | |||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Zume competitors and their valuation data. Start Free Trial | ||||||||
Common questions about Zume
| What happened to Zume? | Zume is not operational anymore and insolvent as of 12 June 2023. |
| When was Zume founded? | Zume was founded in 2015. |
| Where was Zume headquartered? | Zume was headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, United States. |
| Was Zume publicly listed? | No, Zume was a private, VC-backed company. |
| What was Zume's valuation? | Zume was last valued at $2.3B in its undisclosed-stage round in November 2018. |
| How much did Zume raise? | Zume raised $446M across 3 funding rounds. |
| What was Zume's last funding round? | Zume's last funding round was a $375M undisclosed-stage round in November 2018, led by SoftBank Group. |
| Who were Zume's investors? | Zume's investors included SignalFire, AME Cloud Ventures, Kortschak Investments L.P., Maveron, SGH CAPITAL, SoftBank Group, FJ Labs and Vijay Chattha. |
| Who were Zume's competitors? | Zume's competitors included Firepoint Energy, Pri0r1ty Intelligence Group, Algo Paint, Dynamic Air Cooling, Greener Bio and Hytchers. |
| How many companies did Zume acquire? | Zume acquired 1 company, including Pivot Packaging. |
| What was the largest acquisition by Zume? | The $21M acquisition of Pivot Packaging in June 2019 was the largest acquisition Zume made. |
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