Julia Collins, the first Black woman to co-found a venture-backed tech company valued at more than $1 billion, is building another venture, raising $25 million for sustainability platform Planet FWD, AfroTech reports.
Collins, who made history as co-founder of tech-enabled food company Zume Pizza, now leads Planet FWD, a sustainability intelligence platform that helps consumer companies measure and reduce their environmental impact.
The company primarily works with businesses in the food, fashion, and beauty industries. Collins said those industries collectively account for roughly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. Planet FWD measures environmental factors, including carbon, water, and air impacts.
“Planet FWD exists to help every company become its most sustainable self,” Collins told the outlet.
Entrepreneurship has deep roots in Collins’ family. Her parents owned a real estate development company, and her grandparents established a dental practice after moving to San Francisco during the Great Migration. Her family also has ties to C.H. James Produce, founded in Charleston, West Virginia, in 1883 and recognized as one of the nation’s longest-running Black-owned businesses.
Collins carried that entrepreneurial foundation into Zume Pizza, which she co-founded in 2015. The company used technology to rethink food production and delivery while reducing environmental waste.
Zume developed innovations that included compostable pizza packaging, robots used in pizza production, and technology designed to cook food during delivery. In 2018, the company secured a $375 million investment led by SoftBank, pushing its valuation above $1 billion and making Collins the first Black woman to co-found a unicorn.
Collins eventually left Zume, where she had served as co-CEO and a board member, after becoming a first-time mother and deciding to pursue work centered more heavily on impact.
With Planet FWD, Collins is also taking a more deliberate approach to who benefits from the company’s growth. She told the outlet that she intentionally sought greater diversity among the investors participating in its $25 million funding round.
“This time around, I need to have some women, I need to have some people of color, not just on the cap table but in the boardroom with me,” Collins said.
The approach places representation alongside sustainability as Collins builds her latest company and applies lessons from her first billion-dollar venture.
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