Starship Technologies Receives $90 Million Investment

Starship Technologies, an Estonian startup taking a first step in the delivery robotics space, has received $90 million in funding as it looks to cement its position at the top of its category. This latest round of investment was co-led by two previous backers. VC Plural, with roots in Estonia and London, which announced a new $430 million fund last month; and London-based investor Iconical, backed by serial entrepreneur Janus Friis, co-founder of Skype and also co-founder of Starship.

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As In Previous Rounds, Starship Technologies Did Not Disclose Its Valuation

This, together with previous backers such as Finnish-Japanese firm NordicNinja, the European Investment Bank, Morpheus Ventures and TDC, brings the total raised by Starship to $230 million. As in previous rounds, Starship Technologies did not disclose its valuation.

Starship says that in the decade since it was co-founded by Friis and Ahti Heinla (Skype's first engineer), its robots have collectively travelled 18 million miles between neighbourhoods and campuses in about 80 locations in the US and Europe, making 6 million deliveries. It should be noted among its partners/customers. They include companies such as on-demand transport company Bolt, the Co-Op grocery chain and food services companies such as Aramark, Sodexo and Chartwells and Grubhub.

CTO Heinla, who was quietly appointed CEO in December, said the company would use the new funds to support further geographic expansion. It will also soon launch a new robot manufacturing plan with an as-yet-undisclosed partner to produce its vehicles faster; it plans to continue investing in software and logistics services. Its robots are currently operating at Level 4, almost fully autonomous. They typically have a battery life of 18 hours and are now being upgraded to charge wirelessly.