Starship Technologies

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Starship Technologies
IndustryRobotics
Logistics
FoundedJune 11, 2014; 7 years ago (2014-06-11) in Tallinn, Estonia
FoundersJanus Friis
Ahti Heinla
Headquarters
San Francisco
,
United States
Areas served
United States
United Kingdom
Germany
Estonia
Key people
Ahti Heinla (CTO),
Alastair Westgarth (CEO)
ProductsDelivery robots
ServicesLast mile delivery
Websitewww.starship.xyz

Starship Technologies is an Estonian company developing small self-driving robotic delivery vehicles. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with engineering operations in Tallinn, Estonia and in Helsinki, Finland.[1] Starship also has offices in London, UK, Germany, Washington, DC and Mountain View, California.[2]

History[]

A line of Starship Technologies delivery robots at the University of Mississippi
A line of Starship Technologies delivery robots at the University of Mississippi in 2021

Starship Technologies was founded by Skype co-founders Janus Friis and Ahti Heinla.[3] Initially, it was called Project Echo.[1] A core team of the company became the team Kuukulgur, which led by Ahti Heinla had participated in NASA Centennial Challenge by building experimental sample retrieval robots.[1] Starship Technologies OÜ was registered on 11 June 2014 in Tallinn, Estonia.[4] Starship Technologies, Inc., a Delaware corporation, was registered in San Francisco, United States, on 28 September 2016.[5]

Starship Technologies launched pilot services in 2016, in the US and the UK among other countries, with commercial services launched in 2017.[6] In April 2018, Starship launched its autonomous delivery service in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, in partnership with Co-op and Tesco.[7] In March 2020, Starship became the first robot delivery service to operate in a British town center with the rollout of its service in Milton Keynes.[8] Milton Keynes currently has the 'world's largest autonomous robot fleet'[9]

In January 2019, Starship partnered with Sodexo to launch robot food delivery services at George Mason University. With a fleet of 25 robots at launch, this was the largest implementation of autonomous robot food delivery services on a university campus that time.[10][11] In 2019, it expanded its services to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Purdue University in West Lafayette, University of Pittsburgh, James Madison University in Virginia, University of Wisconsin in Madison, University of Houston, and University of Texas at Dallas.[12]

A Starship robot delivering food to students at Oregon State University

In 2020, Starship expanded operations to the University of Mississippi and Bowling Green State University.[13][14][15] In March 2020, it launched its service in Washington DC's Broad Branch Market.[16]

In March 2020 following the COVID-19 pandemic, Starship made a large number of redundancies. The company did not publish how many of 260 employees in Estonia it had dismissed, but later public records show the paid staff in Tallinn drop to 119.[17] [18] This resulted in several legal complaints filed against Starship over allegedly ignoring Estonian labor laws, most of the cases were settled in private mutual agreements.[19] However, half a year later, and after the universities reopened, it rehired many of the staff.[20]

In October 2021, Starship announced that it has completed 2 million deliveries worldwide. [21] Starship had completed 1 million deliveries by January 2021.[22] According to the company, it reached 100,000 deliveries in August 2019 and 500,000 deliveries in June 2020.[23]

Operations[]

A close up of a Starship delivery robot operating in the winter, with its camera array visible

Starship develops and operates the last mile delivery robots. The electric-powered robots ride on sidewalks at a pedestrian speed, with a max speed of 6 kilometres per hour (3.7 mph), can be remote-controlled if autonomous operation fails, and will only be used for relatively short-range local delivery.[6] The robots use feature detection of edges and mapping techniques to determine the suitability of navigable terrain.[24] The robot weighs 55 pounds (25 kg) unloaded, and can hold up to 20 pounds (9.1 kg) of deliveries.[25] The robots are equipped with a sensor suite that includes cameras, GPS inertial measurement unit, ultrasonic sensors, radar, and possibly also other sensors but notably no lidar.[26] The robots have speakers, so they can communicate with humans they meet.

The service has been tested in over 100 cities and 20 countries around the world.[27] The company operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Estonia. From 2019 onwards, Starship focuses mainly on delivery services on college campuses. It has announced plans to expand its service to 100 university campuses in the United States, with the goal of reaching one million students.[28][29] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Starship expanded the number of delivery robots used for grocery in both the UK,[30][31] and in the US.[32]

Corporate matters[]

The Starship's original headquarters were established in London but were moved to San Francisco in 2018.[33] Its engineering operations are located in Tallinn, Estonia and in Helsinki, Finland.[1]

In 2014–2018, Allan Martinson served as the chief operating officer of Starship.[1] In 2018, the chief executive officer Ahti Heinla switched to the position of the chief technology officer and Lex Bayer, a former Airbnb's head of business development, payments, and Airbnb for business, was hired as new CEO.[34] Lex Bayer resigned in 2020 and Ahti Heinla temporarily assumed lead of the company again.[35] Starship hired Alastair Westgarth as their CEO in June 2021.[36]

By 2019, Starship had received US$85 million in venture funding.[28][29] In addition to Janus Friis and Ahti Heinla also Airbnb cofounder Nathan Blecharczyk, Skype founding engineer Jaan Tallinn, Morpheus Ventures, Shasta Ventures, Matrix Partners, MetaPlanet Holdings, Daimler AG, Grishin Robotics, ZX Ventures, and Playfair Capital have invested into the company, among others.[29][34][37]

In January 2022, Starship received a €50 million investment from the European Investment Bank.[38]

See also[]

  • Daxbot another robot that makes local deliveries, known for its friendly appearance and "dog like" attitude.
  • Nuro, a similar autonomous delivery vehicle, though larger at the size of a tiny car, and driving on the road.
  • Kiwibot, another robot that uses sidewalks to travel and is very close to Starship in basic specifications.

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e "Allan Martinson: the perfect storm for Estonian startups". Enterprise Estonia. December 2018. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  2. ^ "About Us". Starship Technologies. 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
  3. ^ Sawers, Paul (31 October 2018). "Starship Technologies launches commercial package delivery service using autonomous robots". VentureBeat. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  4. ^ "Starship Technologies OÜ". e-Krediidiinfo (in Estonian). Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  5. ^ "Statement and Designation by Foreign Corporation. Starship Technologies, Inc". Alex Padilla, California Secretary of State. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  6. ^ a b Kottasova, Ivana (3 November 2015). "Forget drones, here come delivery robots". CNN Business. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  7. ^ Farrell, Steve (1 April 2019). "Co-op expands robot deliveries to second store". The Grocer. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  8. ^ Ingham, Lucy (16 March 2020). "Robot delivery service comes to first UK town centre". Verdict. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  9. ^ "Milton Keynes now has 'world's largest autonomous robot fleet' as Starship expand further". MKFM. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
  10. ^ "World's Largest Fleet of Delivery Robots on a University Campus Launched by Sodexo and Starship Technologies" (Press release). Sodexo. 22 January 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  11. ^ Clark, Mary Lee (22 January 2019). "There are robots on campus—here's what you need to know". George Mason University. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  12. ^ Repko, Melissa (6 January 2020). "On University of Texas at Dallas' growing campus, meal-delivering robots make splashy debut". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  13. ^ Dewitt, Emily (6 February 2020). "New Food Delivery Robots Generally Well Accepted After First Week". HottyToddy.com. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  14. ^ Bratton, Michael (20 February 2020). "Robots roam BGSU as part of incoming food delivery service". 13 ABC. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  15. ^ "'Hello, I'm a Starship Delivery Robot' — BGSU starts autonomous service". Sentinel-Tribune. 20 February 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  16. ^ Brunner, Rob (27 March 2020). "Delivery Robots Come to DC's Broad Branch Market". Washingtonian. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  17. ^ "Starship Technologies makes redundancies to 'streamline service'". ERR. 28 March 2020. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  18. ^ "Teatmik.ee".
  19. ^ Tuul, Harry (11 June 2020). "Šokk ja solvumine: Starshipi koondatud töötajate rääkimata lugu" [Shock and insult: An untold story of Starship's laid off workers]. Geenius. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  20. ^ Saarmann, Tanel (15 September 2020). "Ahti Heinla Eestis toimuvast: ma ei saa aru, miks väravavaht peaks oma meeskonna ründajale muda näkku loopima" [Ahti Heinla about what is happening in Estonia: I do not understand why the goalkeeper should throw mud at the face of his team's attacker]. Ärileht. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  21. ^ "World record: Starship hits 2 million autonomous deliveries". Starship. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  22. ^ Templeton, Brad. "Starship Delivery Robots Complete One Million Deliveries To Become #2 Autonomous Transport Company". Forbes. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  23. ^ Lee, Timothy B. (27 January 2021). "Sidewalk-robot startup celebrates 1 million deliveries". Ars Technica. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  24. ^ Dormehl, Luke (26 February 2020). "Inside the mind of an autonomous delivery robot". Digital Trends. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  25. ^ "Starship at BGSU". BGSU. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  26. ^ "Meet UCI's Newest Employees: The Starship Food Delivery Robots". New University. 4 March 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  27. ^ Hawkins, Andrew J. (20 August 2019). "Thousands of autonomous delivery robots are about to descend on US college campuses". The Verge. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  28. ^ a b "Starship Technologies plans campus expansion after $40 million funding win". ERR. 21 August 2019. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  29. ^ a b c Hamilton, Isobel Asher (20 August 2019). "Starship Technologies, which builds cute robots to deliver bananas to lazy students, has raised another $40 million". Business Insider. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  30. ^ Metz, Cade (20 May 2020). "A City Locks Down to Fight Coronavirus, but Robots Come and Go". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  31. ^ "Robot grocery delivery service expands to Northampton". BBC. 25 November 2020. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  32. ^ ROWLAND, MARIJKE (29 November 2020). "Out of milk? In Modesto, robots can now deliver groceries right to your doorstep". The Modesto Bee. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  33. ^ Green, Alisha (7 June 2018). "Why robot maker Starship Tech beamed its HQ down from London to San Francisco". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  34. ^ a b Hamilton, Isobel Asher (7 June 2018). "Robot delivery firm Starship Technologies has hired an Airbnb veteran as its new CEO and raised $25 million". Business Insider. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  35. ^ Tuul, Harry (4 November 2020). "Eesti robotkullerite tootja Starshipi juht taandus" [The head of the Estonian robot courier manufacturer Starship resigned]. Geenius. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  36. ^ "Starship Technologies Appoints New CEO". Starship. 1 June 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  37. ^ Shead, Sam (12 January 2017). "Robot delivery company Starship Technologies raised $17.2 million in a round led by Daimler". Business Insider. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  38. ^ Lunden, Ingrid (25 January 2022). "Starship Technologies picks up €50M from the EU's investment arm to expand its fleet of autonomous delivery robots". TechCrunch. Retrieved 25 January 2022.

External links[]

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