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Starship raises $50M to deploy 12,000 delivery robots across US cities
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Starship Technologies has raised $50 million in Series C funding led by investment firm Plural to expand its autonomous delivery robot fleet across American urban markets. The San Francisco-based company, founded by Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis, plans to scale from 2,700 robots today to over 12,000 robots by 2027, targeting the largely untapped U.S. city market after establishing dominance in European cities and American university campuses.

What you should know: Starship’s six-wheeled, suitcase-sized robots have already proven their commercial viability with impressive operational metrics.

  • The autonomous sidewalk bots have completed over 9 million deliveries covering more than 12 million miles across 30 European cities and 60 U.S. university campuses.
  • With this latest funding round, Starship has now raised more than $280 million in total funding, following previous rounds of $90 million in 2024 and $40 million in 2019.

The big picture: Starship is positioning itself to capture the American urban delivery market after establishing market leadership in more controlled environments.

  • The company currently dominates European urban markets and U.S. campus deliveries, providing a proven foundation for city-scale expansion.
  • American cities represent a massive untapped opportunity for autonomous last-mile delivery, particularly as consumer expectations shift toward faster delivery times.

Why this matters: The expansion signals a critical inflection point for autonomous delivery robotics transitioning from niche applications to mainstream urban logistics.

  • Starship’s aggressive scaling plan—more than quadrupling its fleet size in three years—demonstrates confidence that regulatory and infrastructure challenges in U.S. cities can be overcome.
  • Success in American urban markets could establish delivery robots as a standard component of city logistics, fundamentally changing how goods move through dense metropolitan areas.

What they’re saying: Company leadership frames this expansion as capitalizing on a generational shift in urban logistics.

  • “Delivery robotics is the next wave of urban logistics, shaping a once-in-a-generation shift in how goods move through cities,” Heinla said in a release.
  • “We own European urban markets, we own U.S. campuses. 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.”
Delivery robot maker Starship Technologies gains $50 million VC

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