Starship Technologies

Starship Technologies operates an electric last-mile delivery droid called “Starship,” designed to traverse pedestrian sidewalks bearing small loads. Starship’s droids can carry a payload of around 22 lbs and can travel at a maximum speed of 3.7 mph covering a radius of roughly 4 miles (10 miles in a single charge). The droids are equipped with cameras, GPS, ultrasonic sensors, radar, and other mapping techniques for autonomous navigation.

The company is headquartered in the US, with engineering offices located in Estonia and Helsinki, Finland. As of February 2024, the company has operations across 60 locations in the US and Europe (including the UK, Estonia, and Finland) and is one of the most prominent startups in the industry and one of the first companies to commercially test a working droid. As of October 2024, its robots had completed 7+ million autonomous deliveries to commercial customers. The company also reported having around 2,000 active droid units in operation as of December 2023.

Key customers and partnerships

In the US, Starship operates its delivery droids at around 50 university locations, as of February 2024, mostly conducted in partnership with US foodservice providers at universities including Sodexo, Aramark, and Grubhub. Its operations in the UK are conducted in partnership with companies such as Tesco, Co-op, Plenish, and Costa Coffee. Other deployment partners in Europe included Estonian supermarket chain Selver, Finnish grocery chain Alepa, Finnish retailer S Group, and Estonia-based ride-hailing and food delivery startup Bolt.

Starship also has product collaborations with companies including TEAL to obtain connectivity solutions for its droids (December 2022), The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company to test airless tires (January 2022), and Veriff to incorporate identity verification services to deliver age-restricted items (January 2022). 

Funding and financials

In February 2024, Starship Technologies raised USD 90 million in a funding round co-led by Plural and Iconical, to expand geographically, introduce a robot manufacturing scheme with an undisclosed partner, and further invest in its software and logistics services.