Starship Technologies secures $17.2m in seed funding

Starship Technologies, the company building a fleet of autonomous delivery robots, has announced it has secured $17.2m seed funding in a round was led by Daimler. Other participants in the round included Shasta Ventures, Matrix Partners, ZX Ventures, Morpheus Ventures, Grishin Robotics and Playfair Capital.

“Starship is reinventing the last mile transportation process, allowing convenient and sustainable robotic delivery,” said Ahti Heinla, CEO, Starship Technologies. “This funding further accelerates development of our technologies and enables us to launch pilot programs in several new markets”.

As previously reported by Post&Parcel, Starship Technologies entered a partnership with Daimler-owned Mercedes-Benz last year to begin developing and testing ‘Robovan’ – a transportation system that incorporates specifically-adapted Mercedes-Benz vans with Starship robots.

“Starship Technologies and Mercedes-Benz Vans share a strong vision: We both strive to fundamentally change the way we think about the delivery on the last mile,”  said Volker Mornhinweg, Head of Mercedes-Benz Vans. “Together, we will make that vision come true and show the potential of robotic delivery devices in a combined holistic transportation system. Starship’s unique technology fits perfectly with our vans.”