Hanwha acquires US robot-made pizza brand Stellar

Hanwha Foodtech, a food & beverage subsidiary of South Korea's Hanwha Group, announced on Monday that it acquired the US robot-made pizza brand Stellar Pizza.

Hanwha Foodtech signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Stella Pizza’s operator Serve Automation in January. The company finalized all contractual agreements to transfer assets to the US-based cooking robot firm on Feb. 29. 

The acquisition was carried out by Hanwha Foodtech Global Inc., a US corporation of Hanwha Foodtech.

Serve Automation was founded in 2019 by engineers from SpaceX, a rocket and spacecraft manufacturer led by Elon Musk. The founder is Benson Tsai, who researched and developed battery systems for rockets and satellites at SpaceX.

Along with acquiring 100% of the assets, Hanwha Foodtech plans to retain some of the management team and core technical staff, including CEO Benson Tsai.

Stellar Pizza plans to resume operations as soon as it completes operational efficiency measures, such as system reorganization.

Write to Sun A Lee at suna@hankyung.com