Autonomous delivery service provider Starship Technologies has raised an additional US$17m in funding and has become the first delivery company in the world to carry out one million autonomous deliveries.
The new funding, which comes from investors such as TDK Ventures and Goodyear Ventures, brings Starship’s total funding to US$102m and comes as interest increases in autonomous delivery following the Covid-19 outbreak.
“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 a par with the biggest companies in the self-driving car market when it comes to miles traveled 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.”
After recently expanding UK operations into a second UK town, Northampton, Starship has also added service to two new university campuses in the USA – UCLA (California) and Bridgewater State University (Massachusetts).
Since launching its first commercial delivery service in 2018, Starship has seen high levels of growth, with order numbers tripling in Milton Keynes in the UK, where 120 robots operate – the world’s largest fleet of autonomous robots. A further 30 robots serve residents in Northampton, following the launch of Starship’s service in the town in November 2020, with operations set to scale up further in the coming weeks.
