As the world is advancing towards self-driving autonomous cars and drone delivers, a California based startup named Zume Pizza is offering freshly prepared pizzas to your doorstep by making use of advanced robots that prepare your pizza while it is on the way. Zume pizza is one of the hottest pizza makers based out of Mountain View, California who are offering freshly baked pizza with a blend of culinary arts and robotic technology.
The Idea:
Alex Garden was the think tank behind this innovative idea to use robots for doing certain repetitive tasks associated with preparing Pizzas. He started Zume Pizza in steal mode during June 2015 and recruited some bright minds of silicon valley to build his patented delivery trucks secretly in his garage in Mountain view. He then invited Julia Collins, a veteran restaurateur to join hands with him in his start-up venture. Then they worked together with ABB, a Swiss manufacturer that operates mainly in robotics and industrial automation. They made two proprietary pizza-making robots which they also call as “P-Bos” that assist them in automating certain repetitive tasks in making Pizzas everyday. The Pizzas are cooked freshly while they are in route for delivery.
How it works?
Zuma is headquartered in Mountain View just 2 minutes away from Corporate headquarters of Google. Inside the office they have two automatons namely Marta and Bruno which automate some of the repetitive tasks in making pizzas. First the freshly baked dough is spread across a conveyor belt where the first robot – Marta hangs like a giant spider and spreads the sauce across dough. Once it is sauced fully, the employees add cheese and topics while it is on the way. The pies are then cooked in a 850-degree oven with help of 5-foot tall robot called Bruno which takes care of moving the Pizza from conveyor belt and placing it safely in the ovens. Once it is half-baked, the pizzas are taking in large vans for delivery where it still cooks for sometime on the way. The pizzas are then delivered freshly to the customers. They use fresh flours which are not bromated or bleached. They use high-quality ingredients including artisan curated meats which are hand-crafted to deliver the best tasteful pizzas to the public.
Founders and Team:
Domestic Pizza delivery market is a $40 billion business which is dominated by major players such as Pizza Hut, Papa john’s, Little Caesars and Domino’s. Seasoned restaurateur Julia Collins wanted to capitalize on this $40 billion domestic pizza delivery market which motivated her to create Zume along with Alex Garden who was the former president of Zynga, an online gaming company. At present there are 12 engineers working in their team along with product managers and designers. They received initial funding from a venture capitalist named SignalFire and are planning to expand further in other regions as well.