Julia Collins, an African American woman entrepreneur, has moved from building a billion-dollar food startup to creating a company focused on sustainability. After co-founding Zume Pizza and becoming the first Black woman to co-found a unicorn company, she left the business and later launched Planet FWD, which has already raised $25 million.
Her path into entrepreneurship started at home. Collins grew up in San Francisco in a family where business and fundraising were regular topics. Her parents ran a real estate development company, while her grandparents moved to the city during the Great Migration and opened a dental practice. Other relatives worked in the produce and supply chain industries, including a family business that dates back to 1883. Collins has said that background helped shape her interest in both food and agriculture.
In 2015, she brought those interests into the startup world when she co-founded Zume Pizza. According to Afrotech, the company used technology to rethink how pizza was prepared, packaged, and delivered. One system allowed pizzas to cook while they were on the way to customers. The company also developed Pizza Pod, a fully compostable package designed to reduce plastic waste from food deliveries. Zume later added robots to parts of its production line and tested other technology, including delivery robots and drones.
The company quickly attracted major investors. In 2018, Zume secured $375 million in funding from a round led by SoftBank, pushing its valuation above $1 billion. The milestone made Collins the first Black woman to co-found a unicorn company. But after the funding came through, she decided to leave her roles as co-CEO and board member. She was also becoming a first-time mother and wanted to put more of her energy into work centered on environmental impact.
Collins later launched Planet FWD as a solo founder. The company helps consumer brands track and understand their environmental impact, with a focus on industries such as food, fashion, and beauty. Its tools measure areas including carbon emissions, water use, and air pollution. Collins has described these industries as major contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions and said the company aims to help businesses make their operations more sustainable.
Planet FWD has now reached its eighth year, and Collins has raised $25 million to grow the company. Her approach to fundraising has also changed since her Zume days. This time, she made a deliberate effort to bring more women and people of color into the group of investors supporting the company and into its boardroom. She said having diverse fund managers and investors around her has made a significant difference as she continues building the sustainability business.