Fallen Pizza Startup Zume Shuts Down After Raising Millions

  • The company pulled in about $450 million from SoftBank, others
  • Baking pizza with robots in trucks was a technical challenge
A robot places a pizza into an oven at Zume Pizza in Mountain View, California, in 2016.Photographer: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Photo

Zume Inc., a one-time robot pizza business that came to represent the excesses of pre-pandemic venture investing, has shut operations, two people familiar with the matter said.

The company had raised about $450 million from SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund and others. It has retained Sherwood Partners, a restructuring firm, to sell its assets, one of the people said. The Information first reported the shuttering.