Automated pizza delivery restaurant Zume has shut down its operations, Bloomberg reported citing sources close to the company.
The company was established in 2015 and raised nearly $450m in funding from SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund and other investors. However, it failed to take off as its technology is said to have experienced many technical challenges.
One of the sources told the publication that Zume is said to have appointed Sherwood Partners to sell its assets.
Zume did not respond to requests for comments.
Zume was one of the many companies that made robots to make pizza. However, its concept never took off due to technical challenges such as keeping melting cheese from sliding off while the pizzas baked in moving trucks.
In November 2018, Zume Pizza secured $375m in funding from an undisclosed investor to expand the business.
ABB developed Zume's pizza robots to press the dough, dispense and spread sauce, and lift pizzas in and out of the oven.
Using this technology, the company planned to operate pizza delivery trucks featuring ovens, remotely operated using cloud-based technology to make and deliver pizzas while on the go.
With this technology, Zume Pizza offered a wide array of pizzas and salads such as ‘bacon me crazy’, palak paneer pizza, BBQ chicken ranch, ‘thom be good’, Italian salad and Caesar salad, along with a range of drinks and desserts.
