Zume Pizza’s Parent Company Raises $375M From SoftBank, Beer Exec Joins Board

Updated: After initial publication, a person close to the matter reached out to Crunchbase News with more information. We’ve added their comments here.

According to regulatory paperwork filed quietly on Thursday around lunchtime, Zume Inc. is raising a ton of cash to take a big slice of the hot pizza delivery market for itself.

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The filings indicate that Zume is targeting a fundraise of $375 million1. According to the Wall Street Journal, which appears to have received exclusive details of the funding round, one investor invested on October 17th of this year. WSJ reports that the deal values Zume at $2.25 billion, although it’s not clear whether that’s pre-money or post.

After initial publication, someone close to the matter followed up with Crunchbase News to say that the deal valued the company at $1.5 billion pre-money.

That lone investor, according to the WSJ, is SoftBank’s Vision Fund, the $100 billion pool of capital funded in large part (approximately 45%) by Saudi Arabia, which has been in the news for the politically-motivated murder of dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi. WSJ’s sources indicate that SoftBank intends to invest an additional $375 million into the company at some point in the future.

The person close to the matter told Crunchbase News that there is currently “one deal at hand, not two.” They said SoftBank is not the organization coming in to do a second tranche of funding, as reported by the Journal

If fully-closed, this would bring the robotic pizza-making company’s total funding to approximately $398 million, according to Crunchbase. Zume’s last round was a $48 million Series B, recorded by Crunchbase on October 6, 2017.

Today’s filing indicates that the company has added another director—David Kamenetzky—to its board, which now consists of four members:

• Alex Garden, the company’s co-founder, chairperson, and CEO.
• Julia Collins, Zume’s co-founder and president
• Bing Gordon, formerly the chief creative officer at Electronic Arts who joined Kleiner Perkins as a partner in 2008.
• David Kamenetzky, the chief strategy and external affairs officer at Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, one of the largest alcoholic beverage companies in the world.

In a statement, Kamenetsky said that he is “excited to join Zume as a non-executive director in a personal capacity.” He further clarified by saying that his work with Zume “has no connection to my role at ABI.”

Based in Mountain View, CA, Zume uses automation, artificial intelligence, and other technologies to prep, cook, and deliver meals. The company’s first iteration of its technology is a pizza delivery service.

In a statement, Alex Garden confirmed the capital raise. “We’ve recently closed a round of funding to support our growth and hiring,” he said.

Correction: The original headline cited the funding figure at $350 million, although the rest of the body text referred—correctly—to a figure of $375 million. The headline has been edited to correct the error.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias