<ul><li>Cartken, an autonomous delivery droid manufacturer, is bringing back autonomous food delivery services to the Ohio State University (OSU) following ceasing the original partnership the university had with Grubhub and the Russian delivery droid maker Yandex last month. This marks Cartken’s first university deployment.</ul>

• A fleet of droids will be deployed in a limited capacity for testing starting next week, with plans to expand the service campus-wide by this fall (September–December). 

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: The Russian incumbent Yandex, first initiated the partnership with Grubhub last July to bring its droids to 250 Grubhub-serviced universities in the US. As Grubhub severed ties with Yandex citing economic sanctions imposed on Russia following conflicts with Ukraine, the droid-based delivery service that was live at two universities at the time (OSU and University of Arizona) came to a halt. Peer startups Starship Technologies and Kiwibot have also adopted a similar strategy of tapping university colleges. In fact, Starship droids serve around 25 universities today, while Kiwibots move around at 10+ such locations, with plans to add 50 more throughout the year.</ul>