Starship Technologies

Last updated

Starship Technologies, Inc.
Company type Private
Industry Robotics
Logistics
Founded11 June 2014;10 years ago (2014-06-11) in Tallinn, Estonia
Founders Janus Friis
Ahti Heinla
Headquarters
San Francisco
,
United States
Areas served
United States
United Kingdom
Germany
Estonia
Finland
Key people
 Ahti Heinla (CEO)
Products Delivery robots
Services Last mile delivery
Website www.starship.xyz

Starship Technologies, Inc. is an Estonian company developing autonomous delivery vehicles. [1] Founded in 2014, the company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with engineering operations in Tallinn, Estonia, and Helsinki, Finland. [2] Starship also has offices in London and Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom and in Hamburg, Germany. [3]

Contents

As of March 2024, the company has raised approximately $230 million in equity funding and €50 million in long term loan facilities. [4]

History

Starship Technologies was founded by Skype co-founders Janus Friis and Ahti Heinla in 2014. [5] Heinla and Friis had taken part in a NASA competition, the Centennial Challenge, to design and build autonomous robots to retrieve geological samples. While their team (named 'Kuukulgur', or 'Moon Rover') did not win the competition, Heinla and Friis began working to apply the technology they had developed to the problem of last mile delivery following a meeting in London. [2] Starship Technologies OÜ was registered on 11 June 2014 in Tallinn, Estonia. [6] Starship Technologies, Inc., a Delaware corporation, was registered in San Francisco, United States, on 28 September 2016. [7]

Starship Technologies launched pilot services in 2016, in the US and the UK among other countries, with commercial services launched in 2017. [8] In April 2018, Starship launched its autonomous delivery service in Milton Keynes in partnership with Co-op and Tesco. [9] In March 2020, Starship became the first robot delivery service to operate in a British town center with the rollout of its service in Central Milton Keynes. [10] By November 2020, Starship claimed that Milton Keynes had the 'world's largest autonomous robot fleet'. [11] By March 2023 the company was delivering in seven British cities. [12]

In January 2019, Starship partnered with Sodexo to launch robot food delivery services at George Mason University in Virginia, US. With a fleet of 25 robots at launch, this was the largest implementation of autonomous robot food delivery services on a university campus at that time. [13] [14] In 2019, it expanded its services to six other US universities. [a] [15] and in 2020 to two more. [b] [16] [17] [18]

In March 2020, following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Starship made many redundancies. However, half a year later, and after the US universities reopened, it rehired many of the staff. [19] [20] [21] [22]

In 2022, a video of a Starship robot being run over by a train at a level crossing near James Madison University campus circulated online, highlighting the possibility of robots being stuck in unanticipated obstacles. [23]

In 2022, the company announced the launch of delivery services in Finland. [24]

As of October 2024, Starship's fleet of more than 2,000 robots worldwide had completed 7 million deliveries, driven over 8.5 million miles, and made 150,000 daily road crossings. [25] [26]

Operations

Starship develops and operates electrically-powered last mile delivery robots. The robots ride on sidewalks with a maximum speed of 6 kilometres per hour (3.7 mph) (pedestrian speed), can be remotely controlled if autonomous operation fails, and are only used for relatively short-distance local delivery. [8] The robots use feature detection of edges and mapping techniques to determine the suitability of navigable terrain. [27] They weigh 55 pounds (25 kg) unloaded, and can carry up to 20 pounds (9.1 kg) of deliveries. [28] Their average battery life is 18 hours, and the typical robot can travel around 40 km per day. [1] The robots are equipped with a sensor suite that includes ten stereo and time-of-flight cameras, GPS, ultrasonic sensors, radar and inertial measurement. [29] [30] The robots have loudspeakers to communicate with humans they meet, with a range of optional voices and characters and the ability to play music. [31] Users order Starship deliveries using the company's app or through the existing platforms of retail partners. [1] [32] Once deliveries arrive, users unlock the robots through biometric identity verification. [33]

Before operating commercially the service was tested in over 100 cities and 20 countries around the world. [34] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Starship expanded the number of delivery robots used for grocery in the UK [35] [36] and the US to help with the delivery driver shortage. [37] [1] As of October 2024, the company operates in over 100 locations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland and Estonia. [25]

Between 2018 and 2021, Starship Technologies worked with Milton Keynes Council to conduct a study reviewing the impact of zero-emissions robots in cities. [38] According to the report, Starship's robots "prevented 280,000 car journeys, and over 500,000 miles travelled in cars, leading to 137 tons of CO2 saved, and 22 kg of NOx saved during the study period". [38] [39]

Economically, Starship's robots are considered to be cheaper than human-staffed delivery services.[ citation needed ] In 2018, Starship claimed that its robots cost US$5500, and hoped to reduce this to $2250. [40]

Corporate matters

The Starship's original headquarters were established in London but were moved to San Francisco in 2018. [41]

In 2014–2018, Allan Martinson served as the chief operating officer of Starship. [2] In 2018, the chief executive officer Ahti Heinla switched to the position of the chief technology officer and Lex Bayer, Airbnb's former head of business development, payments, and Airbnb for business, was hired as the new CEO. [42] Starship hired Alastair Westgarth, former CEO of Google X company, Loon, as their CEO in June 2021. [43] Westgarth left the company and Heinla returned as chief executive in December 2023. [44]

By 2019, Starship had received US$85 million in venture funding. [45] [46] In addition to Janus Friis and Ahti Heinla, other investors include Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk, Skype founding engineer Jaan Tallinn, Morpheus Ventures, Shasta Ventures, Matrix Partners, MetaPlanet Holdings, Daimler AG, Grishin Robotics, ZX Ventures, Playfair Capital and others. [46] [42] [47]

In January 2022, Starship received a €50 million investment from the European Investment Bank. [1] In March 2022 the company raised $100 million in investments, bringing total investment raised to $202 million. [48]

In February 2024 the company raised $90 million led by Plural and Iconical, bringing equity funding to $230 million and another €50 million long term loan facilities by the European Investment bank in January of 2022. [49]

Starship also announced a partnership with Veriff in January 2022 to provide authentication and re-verification services for its fleet of autonomous delivery robots in the UK. [50] This partnership made Starship the first company to create a fully autonomous end-to-end delivery service for age-restricted items. [33]

Images

See also

Notes

Related Research Articles

Janus Friis is a Danish entrepreneur best known for co-founding the file-sharing application Kazaa, and the peer-to-peer telephony application Skype. In September 2005, he and his business partner Niklas Zennström sold Skype to eBay for $2.6B. Friis has maintained ownership interest in Skype through Silver Lake Partners, which sold Skype to Microsoft for $8.5 billion, in May 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milton Keynes redway system</span> Shared path network in Milton Keynes, England

The Milton Keynes redway system is an over 200 miles network of shared use paths for cyclists and pedestrians in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is generally surfaced with red tarmac, and criss-crosses most of the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milton Keynes City Council</span> Unitary authority in England

Milton Keynes City Council is the local authority for the City of Milton Keynes, a local government district in Buckinghamshire, England. The council was established in 1974 as Milton Keynes Borough Council. Since 1997 it has been a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council; it is independent of Buckinghamshire Council, the unitary authority which administers the rest of the county.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delivery robot</span> Autonomous robot for "last mile" delivery

A delivery robot is an autonomous robot that provides "last mile" delivery services. An operator may monitor and take control of the robot remotely in certain situations that the robot cannot resolve by itself such as when it is stuck in an obstacle. Delivery robots can be used in different settings such as food delivery, package delivery, hospital delivery, and room service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astrobotic Technology</span> American space robotics company

Astrobotic Technology, Inc., commonly referred to as Astrobotic, is an American private company that is developing space robotics technology for lunar and planetary missions. It was founded in 2007 by Carnegie Mellon professor Red Whittaker and his associates with the goal of winning the Google Lunar X Prize. The company is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their first launch occurred on January 8, 2024, as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. The launch carried the company's Peregrine lunar lander on board the first flight of the Vulcan Centaur rocket from Florida's Space Force Station LC-41. The mission was unable to reach the Moon for a soft or hard landing. On June 11, 2020, Astrobotic received a second contract for the CLPS program. NASA would pay Astrobotic US$199.5 million to take the VIPER rover to the Moon, targeting a landing in November 2024. In July 2024, NASA announced that VIPER had been cancelled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Co-op Food</span> British brand of consumer co-operative supermarkets

Co-op is a UK supermarket chain and the brand used for the food retail business of The Co-operative Group, one of the world’s largest consumer co-operatives. As the UK’s fifth largest food retailer, Co-op operates nearly 2,400 food stores. It also supplies products to over 6,000 other stores, including those run by independent co-operative societies, through its wholesale business, Nisa Retail Limited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahti Heinla</span> Estonian programmer and businessman (born 1972)

Ahti Heinla is an Estonian computer programmer and businessman. He is one of the developers of Skype.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waymo</span> Autonomous car technology company

Waymo LLC, formerly known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project, is an American autonomous driving technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.

DoorDash, Inc. is an American company operating online food ordering and food delivery. It trades under the symbol DASH. With a 56% market share, DoorDash is the largest food delivery platform in the United States. It also has a 60% market share in the convenience delivery category. As of December 31, 2020, the platform was used by 450,000 merchants, 20,000,000 consumers, and one million delivery couriers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bolt (company)</span> Peer-to-peer ridesharing, food delivery

Bolt is an Estonian mobility company that offers ride-hailing, micromobility rental, food and grocery delivery, and carsharing services. The company is headquartered in Tallinn and operates in over 500 cities in more than 45 countries in Europe, Africa, Western Asia and Latin America. The company has more than 150 million customers and more than 3 million driver and courier partners. The company has plans for an initial public offering in 2025.

Uber Eats is an online food ordering and delivery platform launched by the company Uber in 2014. The meals are delivered by couriers using various methods, including cars, scooters, bikes, or on foot. It is operational in over 6,000 cities in 45 countries as of 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yandex Taxi</span> Russian taxi service

Yandex Taxi, a division of Yandex, operates a ridesharing company in Russia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and UAE. The Yandex Taxi division also operates Yandex Eda, a food delivery service; Yandex.Lavka, a grocery delivery service; and Yandex.Chef, previously known as Partiya Edy, a meal kit service. All services are accessible via the Yandex Go mobile app.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wolt</span> Online food delivery service

Wolt Enterprises Oy, trading as Wolt, is a Finnish food delivery company known for its delivery platform for food and merchandise. On Wolt's apps or website, customers can order food and household goods from the platform's restaurant and merchant partners, and either pick up their order or have it delivered by the platform's courier partners. Wolt also runs its own chain of grocery stores called Wolt Market. Wolt is headquartered in Helsinki.

kar-go Autonomous delivery vehicle

Kar-go, is an autonomous delivery vehicle, designed and built by British company, Academy of Robotics Ltd, a UK company, registered in Wales. The vehicle uses self-drive / driverless car technology to drive itself to locations where it delivers packages autonomously.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commercial Lunar Payload Services</span> NASA program contracting commercial transportation services to the Moon

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is a NASA program to hire companies to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon. Most landing sites are near the lunar south pole where they will scout for lunar resources, test in situ resource utilization (ISRU) concepts, and perform lunar science to support the Artemis lunar program. CLPS is intended to buy end-to-end payload services between Earth and the lunar surface using fixed-price contracts. The program achieved the first landing on the Moon by a commercial company in history with the IM-1 mission in 2024. The program was extended to add support for large payloads starting after 2025.

Nuro, Inc. is an American robotics company based in Mountain View, California. Founded by Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson, Nuro develops autonomous delivery vehicles and is the first company to receive an autonomous exemption from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zipline (drone delivery company)</span> Company that delivers medical supplies by drone

Zipline International Inc. is an American company that designs, manufactures, and operates delivery drones. The company operates distribution centers in the United States, Rwanda, Ghana, Japan, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, and Kenya. As of April 2024, its drones have made more than one million commercial deliveries and flown more than 70 million autonomous miles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artemis program</span> NASA-led lunar exploration program

The Artemis program is a Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), formally established in 2017 via Space Policy Directive 1. It is intended to reestablish a human presence on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The program's stated long-term goal is to establish a permanent base on the Moon to facilitate human missions to Mars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avride</span> Robotaxi project

Avride Inc. is a developer of self-driving cars and delivery robots. It is organized in Delaware and headquartered in Austin, Texas, with offices in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Tel Aviv, and Seoul. It is a subsidiary of Nebius Group and was formerly an affiliate of Yandex called Yandex SDG.

Academy of Robotics is a UK-based artificial intelligence technology company that creates technology to automate repetitive tasks and logistics.

References

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  43. ↑ "Starship Technologies Appoints New CEO". Starship. 1 June 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
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  45. ↑ "Starship Technologies plans campus expansion after $40 million funding win". ERR . 21 August 2019. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  46. 1 2 Hamilton, Isobel Asher (20 August 2019). "Starship Technologies, which builds cute robots to deliver bananas to lazy students, has raised another $40 million". Business Insider . Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  47. ↑ Shead, Sam (12 January 2017). "Robot delivery company Starship Technologies raised $17.2 million in a round led by Daimler". Business Insider . Retrieved 14 June 2020.
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  50. ↑ "Veriff partners with Starship to deliver verification requirements for age-restricted transactions". Help Net Security. 21 January 2022. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
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