Serve Robotics Inc. has raised $13 million in seed funding from Uber Technologies Inc., 7-Eleven Inc. and other investors to grow its fleet of sidewalk delivery robots. 

The company announced the funding round this morning. In addition to growing its robot fleet, the startup plans to expand to more markets and accelerate product development activities.

San Francisco-based Serve Robotics launched in 2017 as a unit of Postmates, the operator of a popular on-demand food delivery app of the same name. Postmates was acquired by Uber in a $2.65 billion deal that closed last December. A few months later, Uber spun off Serve Robotics into an independent startup.

Serve Robotics has developed a four-wheel delivery robot that can reportedly carry up to 50 pounds of merchandise for 25 miles on a single charge. That’s enough to make more than a dozen deliveries per day, the startup says. The robot navigates to its destination with the help of a sophisticated sensor array that uses technologies such as lidar and sonar to map out the environment. 

Serve Robotics is targeting a large addressable market. According to the startup, nearly half of all restaurant deliveries in the U.S. are made within a distance equivalent to a 40-minute walk. Such short distances can in theory be covered more efficiently and at a lower cost by a compact robot than a car. Because Serve Robotics’ system is much smaller than a traditional vehicle, it can provide increased pedestrian safety as well. 

“Serve Robotics is pleased to have the backing of strong strategic partners able to support our intention to provide sustainable, self-driving delivery at scale,” said Serve Robotics co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Ali Kashani. “This initial round of financial and strategic support will allow us to continue advancing our technology, growing our team, and expanding our partnership platform.”

As part of its partner strategy, Serve Robotics has teamed up with Uber to advance its growth plans. Last month, Uber announced that it will make the startup’s robots available to customers in Los Angeles via its food delivery app. Availability is planned for early 2022.

Uber’s Postmates subsidiary, meanwhile, is already using the robots to make deliveries in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Serve Robotics says that it has completed tens of thousands of deliveries to date.

Several other venture-backed startups, including Starship Technologies Inc. and Coco, are also competing for a share of the nascent autonomous delivery market. That multiple players in this emerging segment have raised venture funding indicates optimism on investors’ part about the growth opportunities ahead.

The food delivery market that robot courier startups are targeting with their systems is growing rapidly. DoorDash Inc., one of the industry’s leading players, reported a 45% year-over-year increase in revenue last quarter. U.K.-based food delivery company Deliveroo disclosed in October that the total value of transactions made through its platform grew by 58% in the third quarter.

The emergence of robot couriers is one of several new trends in the food delivery market. Another is the industry effort to speed up deliveries: DoorDash and several others are working on services that offer delivery times of 15 minutes or less. As the major industry players work to speed up their last-mile shipping operations, they may turn to robots to assist them with the effort.

Image: Serve Robotics