Coco Robotics’ delivery robots feature self-driving capabilities that are supervised by remote human operators. | Source: Coco Robotics
Coco Robotics raised $80 million in strategic funding this week. It said the funds will help advance its artificial intelligence platform, scale its fleet, and grow enterprise partnerships.
“We’ve been very intentional about building technology and a business model based on unit economics that work today, not five years down the road,” stated Zach Rash, co-founder and CEO of Coco Robotics. “We’re now at the forefront of applying AI to solve real, everyday problems in urban logistics, and this funding helps us move faster — from advancing our AI platform to expanding our fleet globally.”
Founded in 2020, Coco Robotics said this capital accelerates its momentum as it builds on a model that already works at scale. The company claimed that it has already completed over 500,000 zero-emission deliveries across major U.S. cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami, as well as in Helsinki, its first European market.
Coco is now expanding to more U.S. markets while continuing to grow its international presence. It said it will deploy thousands of vehicles by the end of 2025. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company said its mission is to create a more sustainable, reliable, and affordable last-mile logistics solution in cities.
The funding includes returning investors Sam and Max Altman, Pelion, Outlander, and SNR, as well as new participation from Offline, DeepWater, and Saltwater CEO Ryan Graves.
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Coco leverages partnerships to scale
Coco designed its fleet of autonomous robots to make deliveries more efficient, affordable, and reliable, while also cutting down on traffic and emissions. It has established partnerships with platforms such as Uber and DoorDash.
“During my time scaling global ops at Uber, I saw firsthand how hard it is to build logistics systems that work at scale,” said Graves, formerly senior vice president of global operations at Uber. “What impressed me about Coco is their grounded, capital-efficient approach to real-world autonomy. They’re solving some of our most challenging problems for businesses, consumers, and cities today that will define our culture tomorrow.”
In April, Coco expanded its partnership with DoorDash. This builds on an existing pilot program with Wolt—DoorDash’s international arm—where Coco robots have been making deliveries in Helsinki since earlier this year.
The U.S. rollout is now live in Los Angeles and Chicago, where eligible customers can see the availability of Coco’s fleet of emissions-free sidewalk robots and may have one assigned to their order from nearly 600 participating merchants through the DoorDash app.
Robots take on last-mile delivery
Coco is far from the only company working to use robots to automate last-mile deliveries. Starship Technologies has long been a delivery robot leader. Earlier this year, the company announced that its systems have completed more than 8 million autonomous deliveries and traversed over 10 million miles globally.
Serve Robotics, an Uber spin-off, said it has completed tens of thousands of deliveries for enterprise partners such as Uber Eats and 7-Eleven. The company added that it has scalable multi-year contracts, including a signed agreement to deploy up to 2,000 delivery robots on the Uber Eats platform across multiple U.S. markets.
In addition, Kiwibot has asserted that it is a market leader of robotic deliveries on U.S. college campuses. Since 2017, the Berkeley, Calif.-based provider said it has successfully deployed robots across the U.S., Dubai, and Saudi Arabia. It raised $10 million for deliveries as a service (DaaS) in December 2023.
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