Starship Technologies to use latest funding to expand autonomous delivery service to 100 university campuses

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Starship Technologies, known for its autonomous delivery service, has announced it has closed $40 million in Series A funding.

With plans to use this latest round of funding to “rapidly expand its services to more university campuses,” Starship has also announced plans to expand its service to 100 university campuses in the next two years.

“This new investment will see Starship expand onto more campuses as we head towards a goal of offering our service to over one million students,” says Lex Bayer, CEO of Starship Technologies.

“An entire generation of university students are growing up in a world where they expect to receive a delivery from a robot after a few taps on their smartphone. The reception to our service both on campuses and in neighborhoods has been phenomenal. Our customers appreciate how we make their lives easier and give them back the gift of time.”

Earlier this year, Starship, in partnership with foodservice management company Sodexo, launched its robot delivery service on university campuses, beginning with George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

“I’ve used Starship over 100 times in just a few months. It’s really saved me so much time and reduced my stress, especially around finals,” says Kevin House, a second-year student at George Mason University.

“I love getting food delivered by a robot, it just makes life so much easier.”

Shortly after the launch of the service at George Mason, Starship launched its service at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. The demand for service has been high on both campuses, which has led to an increase in the number of robots operating on both campuses, as well as an increase in dining options and hours of operation.

Starship is working with the University of Pittsburgh and Sodexo for an anticipated launch of the service this fall. The service is expected to launch on the campus of Purdue University on Sept. 9.

Starship says that it is the first self-driving robotics company to complete 100,000 commercial deliveries, as its robots have traveled more than 350,000 miles, and crossed four million streets.

The company adds that it has delivered more than 6,000 pizzas, 7,000 gallons of milk, 8,000 coffees, 9,000 sushi rolls, 15,000 bananas as well as over 3,700 diapers.