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Jay-Z Invests $16.5 Million in Former SpaceX Engineers’ Pizza-Making Robots

Just a few days ago, Tesla finally revealed its first robots at Tesla AI Day 2022, Bumble C and Optimus. Well, robots are a thing of the future, and Jay-Z pledged $16.5 million to pizza-making robots made by former SpaceX engineers.
Stellar Pizza Robot 10 photos
Photo: Stellar Pizza
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Jay-Z's venture capital firm, Marcy Venture Partners, has just led a fundraising round for Stellar Pizza, a start up mobile pizza truck run by robots. According to a statement from Stellar, it managed to raise $16.5 million in its goal to open the first truck at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, California, this fall.

Several former SpaceX engineers founded the company in 2019 and have big plans for it. Stellar Pizza will use a truck with robotic devices similar to those in assembly lines which are capable of making up to 420 custom 12-inch pizzas a day. The truck can be operated by a single driver.

So, how will that work? According to Stellar Pizza, customers will be able to order the pizzas through an app, just like any other restaurant. But here's the good part - the order will be ready in less than five minutes. And that will include baking, slicing, and boxing. Just like that, it's ready to go. The robot can turn the dough into a symmetrical pizza in a few minutes, with the perfect amount of sauce, cheese, and toppings. Plus, the experience will be curated by Ted Cizma, former executive chef and director of culinary services at Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Stellar’s CEO Benson Tsai and partners Brian Langone and James Wahawisan want to open the first robot pizza truck this fall at USC and later expand to other universities and college campuses, aiming to create a national brand.

Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, co-founded Marcy Venture Partners alongside Roc Nation vice-chairman Jay Brown, and longtime venture capitalist Larry Marcus. It previously invested in spatial LABS, a tech incubator with a focus on the metaverse, and Rihanna's clothing brand Savage x Fenty.

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About the author: Monica Coman
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Imagine a Wenn diagram for cars and celebrities. At the intersection you'll find Monica, putting her passion for these fields and English-Spanish double major to work. She's been doing for the past seven years, most recently at autoevolution.
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