SoftBank Group, is reportedly currently in talks to invest between $500 million and $750 million in robot-made pizza delivery startup, Zume.
Bloomberg reports that Zume has secured a patent for their proprietary delivery trucks that include robotic systems and on-demand ovens that start via a remote signal to make pizzas for customers as the truck is en-route for delivery. Through the use of robotics and technology, Zume is able to circumvent many local ordinances that make food prep while in a moving vehicle illegal.
SoftBank is quickly becoming a front-line name in high-profile ag and food tech investments. Last year, the group’s $100 billion SoftBank Vision Fund was the lead investor behind the record-setting $200 million Series B raised by vertical farming startup Plenty. The round, which brought Plenty’s total funding to $226 million at the time, also included affiliates of Louis M. Bacon, the founder of Moore Capital Management, and existing investors Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, Finistere, DCM, Data Collective, and Bezos Expeditions.
Headquartered in Mountain View, California and co-founded by Alex Garden and Julia Collins, Zume began operating in 2015, and is currently running a fleet of three trucks that service the Bay Area.
Pizza crusts are pre-baked with the help of ‘Vincenzo‘, a robotic arm that takes pizza crusts out of 800 degree ovens; AI and data analytics are employed to forecast how many crusts will need to be pre-made for that night’s deliveries. Other robots named ‘Pepe’ and ‘Giorgio’ sauce the crusts, and ‘Bruno’ loads them into the trucks. Not all jobs at Zume are done by robots, however, co-founder Alex Garden told The Spoon last year, “We are co-botic, not robotic.”
The company has ambitious plans for the future including possible tie-ins with companies such as DoorDash and UberEats – another company backed by SoftBank.
“Ultimately if we do this job well, you could sit in the park with your feet up and decide that you’re really in the mood for crispy Peking duck in a warm picnic basket with a nice bottle of Chianti, and it’ll just show up,” said Garden.
And Coffee
Another human favorite being targeted by robotics is coffee. San Francisco startup, Cafe X Technologies, (Cafe X) is in the midst of raising $12 million through a Seed-1 round, reports Crunchbase.
Founded by 24-year old CEO Henry Hu, Cafe X has already raised $9.42 million toward its goal from 26 investors, according to SEC filings.
Cafe X opened its first location last year, where customers place their order using a tablet, and are able to watch a $25,000 Mitsubishi six-axis robotic arm prepare their coffee. Offerings include lattes, matcha lattes, single-origin espresso, or cortado, among others, reports CNBC. Once ready, the customer receives a text alerting them that their order is up.
Within a year the company opened three locations and has advanced its technology, with the latest shop including “Robotic Coffee Bar 2.0”, according to The Spoon, which comes at a lower cost, and has a smaller footprint at 40 square feet, and can be installed in a variety of locations by just a forklift.
“We’re not trying to replace baristas or that relationship customers have with them,” said Victoria Slaker, vice president of Ammunition, a design firm brought in to oversee development, “but we saw an opportunity to make something more beautiful and more interesting than a standard vending machine that could also pour a mean cup of coffee.”
-Lynda Kiernan