27.01.2021

Starship Technologies Raises an Additional $17m in Funding as it Hits One Million Autonomous Deliveries Milestone

Student smiles while using Starship Delivery app to open the Starship robot lid and receive his order

UCLA and Bridgewater State University Join Growing List of Campuses to Offer Starship’s Contactless Delivery Service

SAN FRANCISCO | January 27, 2021

Starship Technologies, the world’s leading provider of autonomous delivery services, today announced that it has raised an additional $17m and added service to two new campuses – UCLA and Bridgewater State University (Massachusetts). Investors include TDK Ventures and Goodyear Ventures.

The company has also reached the significant milestone of completing one million autonomous deliveries, the first autonomous delivery company in the world to do so. The new investment brings Starship’s total funding to $102m to date.

UCLA, regularly considered one of the top public schools in the US, has launched Starship’s service with on-campus delivery from restaurants including Blaze Pizza, Bruin Buzz, Lu Valle, and Southern Lights. Bridgewater State University is also now providing delivery from campus restaurants including Starbucks Cafe and Bears Den. BSU, which offers one of the country’s most distinguished Teacher and Education programs, is the only public or private university aviation program in New England and offers a new photonics engineering program.

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 revolutionizes 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.”

“Over the last few years there has been a growing interest for food deliveries on campus, and

our new partnership with Starship Technologies has come at the perfect time,” said Cindy

Bolton, Associated Students UCLA Director of Food Operations. “The new service is an excellent alternative to traditional delivery, especially as we continue to confront the challenges of COVID-19. By using delivery robots, ASUCLA Restaurants can serve more essential workers and students on the UCLA campus.”

Starship has continued to see exponential growth since starting its first commercial delivery service in 2018. In the past year, Starship set several new delivery records within the company and expanded to more college campuses including Arizona State University (ASU), University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) and UC Irvine. In addition to starting service in Mountain View, CA, the company also began deliveries in Modesto, CA with its new partner The Save Mart Companies.

“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. To get started, users choose from a range of their favorite 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.

Starship Technologies operates commercially on a daily basis around the world. Its zero-emission robots have travelled millions of miles and make more than 50,000 road crossings every day.

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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 over 1m autonomous deliveries around the world. They drive autonomously but are monitored by humans who can take control at any time. Starship was founded by Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis (Skype Chief Architect and Co-founder).

Website: https://www.starship.xyz/follow / starshipdeliveries.com

Facebook: @Starshiptech

Twitter: @Starshiprobots

Instagram: @Starshiprobots