SAN FRANCISCO | June 09, 2022
- Starship is making changes to meet the challenges arising from the new global macroeconomic environment
- Focus will intensify on costs and improving profitability
- As part of this strategy, Starship will focus its services to locations that meet its profitability goals
- Consequently, Starship will be closing select locations and reducing headcount, both in those locations and at the corporate level, impacting 11% of the team
- These difficult changes put Starship in a strong position to meet its financial objectives moving forward
The global economy and investment market have taken dramatic downward shifts recently and, like many other startup and tech companies, Starship has been impacted and will be making changes.
Earlier this year Starship announced nearly $100 million in funding, and in light of the global macroeconomic and investment environment, we must now make changes to ensure we sustain our long term success as the leader in last mile autonomous delivery. Many of our locations have completed record numbers of deliveries this year and demand in those markets continues to be high, with plans to add to our fleets. Those markets have a broad mix of merchants, and a large base of potential customers. However, due to the aforementioned changes in the economy and investments, Starship must now make difficult changes to focus on cost savings and improving profitability.
These changes mean that we are closing a small number of service locations in the US and Germany over the next two months. The locations that we must close do not have the right mix of merchants and customer base to meet our near-term profitability goals. In addition to the staff impacted by these decisions, we are also reducing the team at the corporate level.
These unfortunate but necessary changes will help put Starship in a stronger position moving forward. We are continuing to improve efficiencies over time and this focus will set us up for long term success. We believe our delivery robots are a big part of the solution to the pain a lot of other delivery companies are experiencing right now, and we’ve already proven this in multiple places. We are eternally grateful for our partners and customers who have supported us and we hope that we can continue to earn the love and loyalty for those we still continue to serve.
ABOUT STARSHIP TECHNOLOGIES:
Starship Technologies is revolutionizing deliveries with autonomous robots. The robots are designed to deliver food, groceries and packages locally in minutes. The delivery robots have traveled millions of miles and completed three million autonomous deliveries around the world. Starship was founded by Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis (Skype Chief Architect and Co-founder) and Alastair Westgarth is the CEO.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Henry Harris-Burland
VP of Marketing
Starship Technologies
henry.harris-burland@starship.co
Janel Steinberg (US) / James Meredith & Danielle Hines (UK)
Liberty Communications for Starship Technologies
