Robotic delivery company Starship Technologies raised $50 million in a Series C funding round and plans to make a push into U.S. cities.
The round was led by Plural, an early-stage investment fund based in Estonia and London.
Starship has more than 1,200 sidewalk delivery robots in the U.S., mostly on college campuses, and has completed 9 million deliveries in seven countries. It has now raised a total of $280 million.
It’s the latest development in what has become a furious race to command the robotic delivery market in the U.S. Last week, Serve, another autonomous delivery company, announced a major partnership with DoorDash that will bring its bots nationwide. And in June, Coco Robotics raised $80 million to help build up its own fleet of four-wheeled delivery bots.
Starship, which began in Europe in 2015, is a pioneer of the technology and has a head start on the competition in terms of total number of deliveries. But Serve and Coco are more established in U.S. cities.
“We own European urban markets, we own U.S. campuses. Now it's time to replicate this proven success in American cities,” said Ahti Heinla, co-founder and CEO of Starship, in a statement. “Millions of U.S. consumers will soon experience sub-30-minute delivery by Starship robots as the new standard.”
Autonomous delivery holds considerable promise. Proponents say it will make food delivery faster and less costly, and will also help ease traffic gridlock and reduce carbon emissions. And they believe bots will be needed to meet the growing demand for delivery. That’s one reason why DoorDash developed Dot, its own delivery robot, which can travel on sidewalks and roads.
But obstacles remain, including literal ones, like bad sidewalks, tree roots and hazardous weather conditions. Delivery bots are not yet fully autonomous, relying on remote pilots to help out in certain situations, like crossing busy streets. And each new market presents regulatory and policy challenges for robotic delivery companies to contend with.
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