Julia Collins has raised $25 million for Planet FWD, the sustainability company she founded after helping build Zume Pizza into a billion-dollar startup. Her latest funding round marks another milestone in a career that has moved from rethinking food delivery to helping consumer brands measure and reduce their environmental impact.
Collins grew up in San Francisco in a family with deep ties to business, food and agriculture. Her parents worked in real estate development, while her grandparents moved to the city during the Great Migration and opened a dental practice. Other relatives worked in produce and supply chains, shaping Collins’ early interest in how food moves from farms to consumers.
In 2015, Collins co-founded Zume Pizza, a startup that used technology to change how pizza was made and delivered. The company experimented with mobile ovens that cooked pizzas en route, compostable packaging, robotics and automated delivery. Its approach attracted major investment, including a $375 million funding round led by SoftBank in 2018. Zume’s valuation topped $1 billion, making Collins the first Black woman to co-found a unicorn company.
Collins later left Zume, stepping away from her co-CEO and board roles. As she entered motherhood, she also began considering how to direct her entrepreneurial experience toward environmental challenges.
That led to Planet FWD, which Collins launched as a solo founder. The company provides tools to help consumer brands understand their environmental footprint, including greenhouse gas emissions, water use and air pollution. Its clients operate in sectors such as food, fashion and beauty, where production and supply chains can have significant environmental effects.
Planet FWD’s new $25 million raise will support the company’s growth as it enters its eighth year. Collins says her approach to fundraising has changed since the Zume days. She has worked to bring more women and people of color into the investor group and company boardroom, aiming to broaden the perspectives represented as the company scales.
For Collins, the raise represents more than additional capital. It extends a career built around identifying inefficiencies and building businesses to address them. At Zume, the focus was food delivery and packaging. At Planet FWD, the challenge is helping companies make sustainability measurable and actionable.
Her journey also highlights how founders can redirect their experience toward new industries and priorities. Collins has moved from a high-profile food technology startup to climate-focused business tools, carrying forward her interest in supply chains while broadening her impact. With fresh funding, Planet FWD has additional resources to help brands examine the environmental costs embedded in their products and operations.
