From an idea and a whiteboard to the world leader for robot delivery in just 10 years
London (July 4th, 2024) – Starship Technologies, the world’s leading provider of autonomous delivery services, is celebrating a decade of successes. The company, born in Estonia 10 years ago but now operating commercially in the UK, US, Estonia, Germany, Denmark and Finland, has become a favourite in neighbourhoods and campuses across the globe.
Starship created the market for robot delivery in 2014 with the goal of making last-mile deliveries more efficient and sustainable. The company spent a significant amount of time on the robot design and technology to ensure the robots not only operated well but would also be socially accepted.
After rigorous testing in various markets around the world, Starship first began commercial deliveries in Milton Keynes in 2018. Fast forward to today, and the company has a global fleet of over 2,000 robots, which have completed more than six million autonomous deliveries in more than 100 locations around the world.
Starship at a glance 10 years on:
- 6 million+ deliveries made
- 13 million+ km travelled
- 2,000+ robots in 100+ locations
- $230m raised
- Operating 99% autonomously
- 150,000 crossings every day
- Capable of 18 hours of uninterrupted operations per robot
Ahti Heinla, co-founder and CEO of Starship Technologies, said: “In 2014, two guys sat in a room with a whiteboard and an idea. Fresh out of Skype, Janus (Friis) and I were thinking, ‘What next?’ In logistics, we saw a sector that desperately needed a technological revolution. We could see the trends in last mile and we knew we could build something that would meet a growing need.”
Ahti added: “When we founded Starship, we had a dream that we could bring robot delivery to people across the globe. We wanted to make last-mile delivery ethical, sustainable and profitable – that’s not an easy task. Ten years later, thousands of Starship robots serve people and communities in six nations, delivering hot food and groceries for household names. They’re replacing car journeys, reducing carbon emissions and making people smile along the way. We’ve grown from an idea to a scalable and profitable delivery solution – and there’s much more to come as we expand to new markets, nations and partners.”
Starship Technologies operates commercially on a daily basis around the world. Its zero-emission robots are lightweight and use a combination of sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning to travel on pavements and navigate around any obstacles, while computer vision-based navigation helps them map their environment to the nearest inch.
-ENDS-
About Starship Technologies
Starship Technologies is revolutionising deliveries with autonomous robots. The robots are designed to deliver food, groceries and packages locally in minutes. The delivery robots have travelled millions of miles and completed over six million autonomous deliveries around the world. Starship was founded by Janus Friis (Skype co-founder) and Ahti Heinla (Skype chief architect), who is also CEO.
- Website: https://www.starship.xyz
- Facebook: @StarshipTechnologies
- Twitter: @StarshipRobots
- Instagram: @starshiprobots
