Starship provides autonomous delivery services to UCLA students
Autonomous delivery service provider, Starship Technologies, has raised an additional $17 million and reached the one million autonomous deliveries milestone.
After recently expanding UK operations into a second UK town in Northampton, Starship has also confirmed that it has added service in the US to two new university campuses – UCLA and Bridgewater State University (Massachusetts).
Investors include TDK Ventures and Goodyear Ventures, and the new investment brings Starship’s total funding to $102 million to date. The additional funding comes at a time of increasing interest in the autonomous delivery industry.
Contactless delivery has proved to be one of the most reliable ways to protect vulnerable populations and enable social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Goodyear Ventures is very excited to join Starship’s journey as it revolutionises the autonomous delivery space,” said Abhijit Ganguly, senior manager, Goodyear Ventures. “Goodyear’s trusted services footprint combined with its custom solutions for autonomous vehicle companies comprise a solid platform to support Starship in the market. Goodyear Ventures fuels the future of mobility by partnering and investing in seed-to-growth-stage startups in emerging mobility technologies.”
“Completing one million deliveries is a milestone that everyone at Starship is celebrating,” said Ahti Heinla, Co-founder and CEO of Starship Technologies. “We are delivering a fully commercial service operating 24-7 across five different countries now doing thousands of deliveries a day and millions of autonomous miles per year. This scale puts Starship on par with the biggest companies in the self-driving car market when it comes to miles travelled in the last year alone. We’re proud to be offering a crucial service that is now becoming part of everyday life for millions of people.”
The Starship Food Delivery app is available for download on iOS and Android. Users choose from a range of their favourite food or drink items, then drop a pin where they want their delivery to be sent. They can then watch as the robot makes its journey to them, via an interactive map. Once the robot arrives, they receive an alert, and can then meet and unlock it through the app.
