Robotics company Starship Technologies and ride-hailing startup

 

Robotics company Starship Technologies and ride-hailing startup Bolt have partnered to introduce food delivery using sidewalk robots.  The service will initially launch in Estonia and later expand to more countries. Starship, founded by former Skype founders, operates autonomous delivery robots that it says are close to Level 4 autonomy. Bolt, valued at $8.4B and supported by Sequoia Capital, is a major competitor to Uber and Lyft in the ride-hailing industry, serving over 100 million customers globally. Through the partnership, Starship will leverage Bolt's large customer base of 100 million users in 45 countries and 500 cities. Customers can order food online and have it delivered by Starship's self-driving robots. The financial details of the collaboration were not disclosed. As a whole, the autonomous delivery robot market is projected to grow 20.4% annually, reaching $55B by 2026.