Dive Brief:
- Starship Technologies has raised $50 million in new funding to help it penetrate the U.S. delivery market and more than quadruple its delivery robot fleet by 2027, the company announced Wednesday.
- The funding round was backed by Plural, Karma.vc, Latitude, Coefficient Capital, SmartCap (funded by the European Union, NextGenerationEU), and Skaala, according to the press release. Starship has raised more than $280 million over the years, including $90 million in 2024.
- The robotic delivery sector has had a strong 2025, with new deployments, major partnerships between aggregators and robot makers for multiple companies. The investment in Starship indicates investors remain interested in robots as last-mile delivery solutions.
Dive Insight:
Starship said it plans to scale its delivery fleet from 2,700 to about 12,000 robots by 2027, a scale it said competitors can’t match. The company offers delivery in about 30 European cities and upwards of 60 college campuses in the U.S. After completing 9 million deliveries, Starship has a sizable database with which to improve its operations and routing. The funding, data and campus experience set the stage for major growth in the U.S.
“We own European urban markets, we own U.S. campuses,” said Ahti Heinla, the company’s co-founder and CEO. “Now it's time to replicate this proven success in American cities. Millions of U.S. consumers will soon experience sub-30-minute delivery by Starship robots as the new standard.”
The company has worked with Grubhub in the U.S. on college campuses since 2022, and partners with Wolt, a subsidiary of DoorDash, in Europe, meaning it already has business relationships with major American aggregators.
Both Uber Eats and DoorDash have invested heavily in boosting autonomous delivery this year. Uber and Serve Robotics are expanding delivery to more cities and brands. DoorDash and Serve announced the start of a new partnership in Los Angeles. DoorDash has also started working with Coco Robotics in Chicago and Los Angeles. The delivery giant is also developing its own delivery robot.
