Finally, robots that somewhat resemble R2-D2.
Starship Technologies has raised $25m to bring autonomous delivery bots to the mainstream streets sooner than later.
These 6-wheeled delivery robots can carry items like groceries or packages within a 2-mile radius of a store or restaurant, and have been deployed in 8 locations in the US and Europe thus far.
The London-based startup was set up in 2014 by Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis. But now Heinla, who has been Starship’s CEO since the beginning, is switching roles to make way for ex-Airbnb vet, Lex Bayer.
With the new funding, the company plans to scale up from hundreds to more than 1k robots sometime next year, as it looks to expand its operations from 2 campuses to 20.
Starship was the first out of the gate to bring autonomous delivery vehicles to market, but has since opened the door for other competition after their $17m funding round led by Daimler in 2017.
Nuro raised a whopping $92m at the beginning of the year, and a new company called Boxbot recently raised $7.5m, along with a permit to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver.