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On December 6th, autonomous sidewalk delivery solutions provider Serve Robotics, a February 2021 spin off from grocery delivery firm Postmates (itself owned by Uber), announced that it had secured a US $13 million expanded Seed Round. Participating in the round were DX Ventures, 7-Ventures and Wavemaker Labs. Uber acted as strategic investor for the round.
This latest Seed Round serves as an extension of Serve’s previous seed funding from March 2021, and includes participation from existing investors like VC firms Neo and Western Technology Investment.
Serve’s robotic platform, which has a load capacity of approximately 50 lbs. and can travel up to 30 miles on a single charge, is designed to autonomously navigate sidewalks in urban areas while monitored by a human operator. According to the funding announcement, the investment influx will be used to “accelerate its expansion plans into new customer segments and geographic areas, which will require them to build more sidewalk robots to fuel that growth.”
Serve Robotics’ self-driving robots have completed tens of thousands of deliveries in Los Angeles and San Francisco from over 100 merchants according to the company. In November 2021, Serve announced a partnership with Uber. According to company officials, Serve’s autonomous delivery service will be made available to Uber Eats customers in Los Angeles in 2022.
