Starship Technologies

Starship Technologies builds autonomous last-mile delivery robots that deliver food orders, groceries, documents, and supplies to locations like college campuses, corporate offices, and industrial sites. The robots are equipped with a suite of sensors, cameras, and a proprietary driving system that uses computer vision algorithms to navigate around obstacles and plan the most efficient routes. They carry loads of up to 20 pounds, operate on 18 hours of battery life, and can recharge autonomously and wirelessly between deliveries. A GPS system tracks the robots to the nearest inch, and they can only be unlocked by the customer at the designated delivery destination. Starship is active in the US, UK, Germany, Denmark, Estonia and Finland. As of 2024, its robots have reduced almost 1.8M kg of carbon dioxide.

The company offers its solution through a delivery-as-a-service (DaaS) model, which allows restaurants and retailers to offer delivery to their customers without the capital expense of purchasing a robot. The solution integrates directly into the business’ website or mobile app (partners have access to a full developer toolkit, documentation, and support), so the robots assimilate immediately into their own delivery fleets. With this business model—which is more cost-effective, particularly for smaller businesses—restaurants and retailers can easily expand their existing delivery services, or introduce on-demand delivery for the first time.

“Our goal is to make last-mile delivery sustainable—not just profitable,” says Chris Neider, VP of Business Development at Starship. “An average delivery for our robots takes as much energy as it takes to brew a cup of coffee. The DaaS model allows us to increase the utilization of our robots at a cost that our partners can scale and our customers can manage. It’s helping us all reduce the carbon footprint of last-mile delivery.”