Starship Technologies

We’re revolutionising last-mile logistics with robots that deliver groceries, hot food and industrial supplies. Traditional methods of last-mile delivery are inefficient, unethical and expensive. We're changing that with autonomous robots. We stealth-launched the world’s first delivery robot, modestly named ‘6C’, beginning drive-testing in European cities. By June a small fleet complete 5000km of driving, gradually learning the world around them. Starship announces $17.2m in funding and pilots takeaway food deliveries in London. By September the robots had drive-tested in 100 cities and encountered 12 million people. Starship launches its first commercial service in Milton Keynes, UK, delivering groceries via the Starship Deliveries mobile app. We launch our first commercial service on university campuses in the US, starting with George Mason University. COVID hits and Starship provides a vital contactless delivery service to students and communities worldwide. Starship announces a further $100m in funding and launches service in Finland via the Starship Food Delivery app. In October, Starship announces groundbreaking partnership with Grubhub on US campuses, with the first plans to integrate robot delivery into a partner’s e-commerce platform. Starship is named in Fast Company’s Annual List of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2023. Our robots are now serving over 50 college campuses in the US, and we install the world’s first wireless charging stations for robots. Europe’s first wireless charging stations for robots are installed, and service expands to cover 100 S-Group stores in Finland. Starship Technologies passes 10 million autonomous deliveries with 3000 robots – the world’s largest fleet of its kind – operating across eight countries. Launched in 2014 by Skype co-founders, Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis, Starship Technologies is using autonomous robots to make hyper-local delivery more cost-effective, efficient, accessible and sustainable. Our robots deliver items such as groceries, food takeaway and packages. They have completed over 10 million deliveries and can be found in over 300 service areas around the world. Starship’s business headquarters are in San Francisco. Engineering is based in Estonia and R&D in Helsinki, with operational presence across eight countries: the UK, the US, Germany, Sweden, Czechia, Finland, Estonia, and Switzerland.

Delivery robot developer Starship Technologies has partnered with the Co-op supermarket to bring autonomous grocery deliveries to Leeds in the UK. Working with Leeds city council, the service will initially be available to 20,000 residents within the Adel and Tinshill areas of the city. Orders are made through the Starship food delivery app, with groceries picked fresh in local Co-op stores. Leeds residents will be able to choose from a range of grocery items, schedule their delivery, then drop a pin where they want their delivery to be sent. Fees start from just 99p (US$1). Customers can order their delivery to arrive in under an hour and watch the robot travel in real time via an interactive map. An alert is sent when the robot arrives, with the delivery compartment unlocked by the customer through the app. Since launching commercial deliveries in 2018, Starship’s robots have completed more than four million deliveries around the world. Globally, the robots undertake 140,000 road crossings every day. The expansion in the north of England follows the successful introduction of autonomous deliveries in Milton Keynes, Bedford, Northampton, Cambourne, and most recently Cambridge. Councillor Helen Hayden, Leeds city council’s executive member for infrastructure and climate, said, “As a council we are absolutely committed to delivering alternative, sustainable methods of travel to help reach our target of becoming net-zero by 2030. We are trying to reduce the number of short journeys made by car, including those made by delivery vehicles. I’m really excited by the launch of this pilot, which will be trialled for three months in northwest Leeds. “Since the pandemic, we have seen a huge increase in the number of home deliveries. This pilot will be transformative and will provide an alternative home delivery provision which will particularly benefit residents with mobility problems or those facing other challenges which make accessing local facilities difficult. I would encourage residents in Adel and Tinshill to feedback their thoughts on the delivery robots during the pilot by visiting the council’s survey at starshipleeds.commonplace.is.” Chris Conway, e-commerce director, Co-op, said, “Co-op is committed to exploring new and innovative ways to increase access to its products and services. Our members and customers lead busy lives and so ease, speed and convenience are a cornerstone of our approach. Co-op stores are well placed in local communities to provide quick and easy home deliveries – whether a full grocery shop or for those last-minute top-ups and forgotten items. We are delighted to be expanding into Yorkshire to provide flexible and convenient options online for shoppers in our communities.” The robots are battery powered, lightweight and travel at the speed of a pedestrian (no faster than 4mph). They use a combination of sensors, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to travel on pavements and navigate around any obstacles, while computer vision-based navigation helps them map their environment to the nearest inch. VISITOR PRIVACY METADATA 5 months 27 days Description is currently not available.