Estonian autonomous delivery vehicles Starship Technologies raised €83,3M
Estonian designer of autonomous delivery vehicles Starship Technologies raised €83,3M from previous backers Plural (founded by Estonian entrepreneurs Sten Tamkivi and Taavet Hinrikus) and London-based VC Iconical (one of the partners is a co-founder of Starship and a co-founder of Skype Janus Friis).
Established by Ahti Heinla (co-founder and ex-chief technical architect at Skype) and Janus Friis in 2014, Starship Technologies designs robots that deliver food, groceries, and packages locally in minutes. Starship’s business headquarters are in San Francisco.
The company will use the investment to expand globally. In addition, the company plans to launch a new robot manufacturing scheme to produce its vehicles more quickly and continue investing in its software and logistics services.
According to Starship, its robots have driven 11M miles in some 80 locations across the U.S. and Europe. They’ve made more than 6M deliveries. The company’s partners are Estonian mobility unicorn Bolt, Swiss retail company Coop , the US food-ordering and delivery marketplace Grubhub, and others.
Founded in 2022 by Sten Tamkivi, Taavet Hinrikus, Ian Hogarth, and Khaled Helioui, Plural focuses on leading early-stage rounds between €1 and €10M. In 2023, a new partner, who is AI-driven biotech HelixNano founder and VC investor, Carina Namih joined Plural.
