Starship reached the 8M deliveries milestone in early 2025. | Credit: Starship Technologies
Starship Technologies Inc. last week announced that its systems have completed more than 8 million autonomous deliveries and traversed over 10 million miles globally. The San Francisco-based company’s sidewalk robots have become a familiar sight for thousands of customers worldwide, delivering groceries, food, and other supplies.
“While many robotics companies are still launching pilot projects with just a couple of robots or building their first prototypes, we’ve proven ourselves as a real-world solution,” stated Ahti Heinla, co-founder and CEO of Starship. “With millions of deliveries behind us, we’re not just imagining the future — we’re already operating in it.”
Founded in 2014 by Skype co-founders Heinla and Janus Friis, the company has quietly established itself as a frontrunner in the sidewalk delivery robot category. Starship said its latest achievement, with over 2,000 robots operating at SAE Level 4 autonomy across more than 150 locations in six countries, underscores its sustained growth and technological advancement.
Starship is a leading autonomy provider
While most sidewalk delivery robot providers do not disclose their delivery volumes, Starship said its scale is impressive even when compared with leaders in adjacent sectors.
- Zipline, founded in 2014, said it has used drones to deliver 1.45 million orders across seven countries, including the U.S., Ghana, and Japan, primarily in healthcare and e-commerce.
- Waymo, which won the 2025 RBR50 Robot of the Year, is the most established player in autonomous ride-hailing. The company announced in late 2024 (mid-December) that it had surpassed 5 million driverless trips to date.
Starship has steadily grown its fleet of autonomous robots. | Credit: Starship Technologies
Delivery robot market still scaling
The global market for delivery robots could expand at a 64% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2022 and 2032, reaching 4.7 million active robots by the end of the decade, according to Transforma Insights.
As the autonomous vehicle landscape continues to evolve, Starship touted its 8 million deliveries, which involve crossing 125,000 roads and driveways per day or about two crossings per second.
The company also said it has focused on sustainability, with its electric robots using about the same amount of energy in an average delivery as boiling a small kettle of water. Starship said its robots have saved over 500 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere in Europe, providing an alternative to getting groceries with cars.
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