• Starship Technologies, an autonomous delivery droid manufacturer, has partnered with convenience store chain Co-op and North Northamptonshire Council to deploy its delivery droids across Wellingborough, Higham Ferrers, and Rushden in Northamptonshire county, UK.

• Starship robots will now deliver groceries from four Co-op stores in the said towns to its customers, which in total cover around 45,000 residents in 33,000 households.

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: Starship Technologies already has operations in Northamptonshire, specifically in the town of Northampton (rolled out in partnership with Co-op in late 2020 ). Its operations in the UK also span across Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire (since 2018) and Cambourne in Cambridgeshire (since May 2022) as well as Central Bedfordshire in Bedfordshire, which was announced just last week. However, expansions in the UK come on the heels of Starship Technologies pulling back its operations in several US cities and Germany, citing the need to focus on reducing costs and increasing profitability.</ul>