Postmates X, the robotics division of on-demand delivery startups for $2.65 billion last year, has officially expanded as an independent company called Serve Robotics. TechCrunch announced in January that it was buying a deal from investors. Serve Robotics, a name taken from the autonomous sidewalk distribution bot that was developed and operated by Postmates X, has raised seed funds in a circle led by venture capital firm Neo. Other investors included Uber, as well as Lee Jacobs and Cyan Banister’s Long Journey Ventures, Western Technology Investments, Scott Banister, Farhad Mohit and Postmates co-founders Bastian Lehmann and Shawn Plies.
The service robotics did not share specific parts of the fund except the round, which will be in the series, is not over yet. Paying to spin out can happen in phases, the first launch is used for the initial launch and the rest of the round close when the IP is transferred.
The new company will run by Ali Kashani, who was the head of Postmates X. Other co-founders included Dmitry Demeshchuk, the first engineer to join Postmates survey team, and MJ Chun, the former product leader at Anki, is serving strategy. The company headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Los Angeles and Vancouver, Canada with 60 employees. Kashani, co-founder and CEO of Serve Robotics, said, “When removing the self-driving driver, the robotic delivery removes the vehicle itself and makes the supply sustainable and accessible to all,” said Kashani, co-founder and CEO of Serve Robotics. “Over the next two decades, new dynamic robots will enter every area of our lives – food first, then everything else.”
As head of Postmates X, Kashani set out to answer this question, the search for Postmates on delivery bots began on foot in 2017 after the company quietly acquired Kashani’s startup Lox Inc. As head, Postmates released its first Serve Autonomous Distribution bot in December 2018. Prior to the planned commercial launch in Los Angeles, the second generation of the summer emerged in the summer of 2019 with a differently designed different sensor and a few other upgrades.
With a focus on expansion, however, the mission of designing, developing and managing specialized delivery robots to navigate sidewalks will continue. The service will continue its supply activities in Los Angeles. It plans to ramp up research and development in the San Francisco Bay Area and further expand its market through new partnerships.
