Recently, Zume, a pizza robot company invested by Masayoshi Son, declared bankruptcy.
This news has undoubtedly caused significant waves in the increasingly serious internal competition in the robotics industry.
After all, this is a company that raised $5 billion and was acquired in 2020 to focus on sustainable packaging, not part of the" Hunger and cold; Small businesses.
According to bankruptcy advisory firm Sh Pichinson (co founder of MartierwoodPartners, Martin Bond, and hired Shern Pichinson), Zume is insolvent and has sought liquidation from WoodPartners to protect the interests of creditors.
According to foreign media Thelmfarmatin, Zume Company ceased operations at the end of last month.
Previously, Zume company hoped to establish a truck with a kitchen, where robots were used to cook pizza and achieve fast delivery. This concept was widely welcomed by the outside world at that time.
Many people don't understand why such a company with advanced concepts and no shortage of funds hasn't ventured into its own space?
In fact, after reviewing Zume's arduous journey over the years, it is not difficult to find a fact: what is gained on paper is ultimately shallow, and one knows that this matter will be; Landing;.
Zume was founded in 2015 and after starting to sell pies made with robot assistance, Zume received an investment from AMECloudVentures, a venture capital company under Yahoo founder Yang Zhiyuan.
At the beginning of its establishment, Zume Company hoped to establish a truck with a kitchen, where robots were used to cook pizza and achieve rapid delivery.
The concept is that Zume's pizza is completed on a truck, with its proprietary truck assisted by robots for loading, and its built-in oven can be ignited by remote cloud signals according to demand.
In other words, while cooking pizza, the truck is driving towards the diner's receiving location; When the pizza is cooked and taken out of the oven, it is also at the doorstep of the diners' houses.
It has to be said that this is a brand new concept that is surprisingly fashionable and can attract investors' attention, which is also logical.
But as the project progressed, they encountered an insurmountable hurdle— Due to the continuous movement of vehicles and the significant external uncertainties, robots are prone to errors during the production of pizza, which can affect the taste of customers.
This also makes the" Fully automated pizza production line; Becoming an impossible task.
Even so, in 2018, Zume received $375 million (approximately RMB 2.634 billion) in investment from SoftBank, with a valuation of up to $2 billion and was included in the" Unicorn; Among them.
Having sufficient funds does not necessarily mean that all problems can be solved. Until 2020, Zume had not yet found a perfect solution and began to fall into a predicament.
After a series of executive resignations, half of the employees were laid off.
Until then, there was still a more thorny problem that could not be solved, which was that the taste of pizza was extremely poor; It's like chewing cardboard;.
As a last resort, Zume decided to change direction and cut off its main business of robot making and delivering pizza, instead focusing on food packaging.
From the moment this decision was taken, it meant that the Zume robot's grand plan of delivering pizza had not been realized, becoming a project that looked beautiful but could not be implemented.
It doesn't sound difficult to completely change the pizza making process by introducing advanced robot technology. After all, with the rapid development of the mobile robot industry in recent years, robots are being used in more and more industries.
But no one expected that this startup company would eventually declare bankruptcy after trying to deal with a series of technical and financial issues.
In fact, industry insiders who are familiar with Zume's development history, as early as 2019, some people had doubts about" Pizza Robot” There have been doubts about whether the company Zume can be valued at $4 billion. They used" Unbelievable; To describe a company that is not in good operating condition but still able to raise funds.
In November of that year, it was reported that Zume had adjusted its business line, resulting in the company including CMO Mark; News of the resignation of four executives, including Karen Parker. And Mark; Korenparker just joined this company in February of that year and served for only about 10 months.
As a major investor, SoftBank still stated that it will continue to support Zume, but will no longer lead the investment. According to insiders, Zume's financing round at that time also included some debt.
As a result, Zume began to provide a full range of solutions for takeaway shopkeepers, and after discussion, it believed that this model of kitchen rental and supply chain security should also have a market in China.
This kind of forced action; Change”, Zume, who suffered an annual loss of $50 million at that time, still saw no hope of profitability.
People often say that; Insiders watch the doorstep, outsiders watch the excitement;, This time is no exception. At a time when Zume had to embark on a new round of business restructuring and personnel adjustments, the media strongly mocked this: HBO launched the program "Silicon Valley", in which one episode made a naked satire of Zume.
Some people believe that Zume is another misconception of SoftBank, which has also become one of the reasons why Zume's new round of IPO is not smooth.
The founders of Zume even comforted themselves by claiming that the company did not have any layoff plans, but because the robot had already contracted for most of the kitchen, they would add some new tasks to fifty employees. But the situation backfired, and after the capital injection, the direction and original intention changed accordingly.
After all, Zume could not find an entry point to compete with Pizzahut and Domino's in the $10 billion pizza delivery market. Because, based on low consumer loyalty and crazy subsidies provided by venture capital, the cost of acquiring customers in the food distribution industry is too high.
Of course, after the transformation, Zume has also made new attempts, constantly trying to cooperate with existing food suppliers. For example, provide Pizzahut with circular biodegradable lunch boxes. This bundled cooperation model may reduce a lot of direct competition in business.
Even so, after a busy year, the result was a loss of $50 million.
It can be said that Zume's attempt failed, but the thinking left for the robotics industry will always exist.
When trying new projects, a robotics enterprise should first consider a seemingly simple field, and introducing automation and robotics technology may also face complex practical problems and high costs that new technologies may bring.
Another important point is that the successful implementation of robotics technology not only depends on the technology itself, but also on its integration into a viable business model.
If accurate predictions are not made in advance, even with strong investment support and potential technologies, there will still be many unimaginable difficulties when attempting to transform its business model.
Of course, there is also a positive side to this matter.
By reviewing the entire process of Zume's war from igniting to extinguishing, we can remind more participants and investors in the robotics industry how to effectively utilize robotics technology, as well as the issues that need to be carefully considered when introducing this technology, to smoothly bring ideals into reality.
