Uber, Nvidia-backed delivery robot startup Serve Robotics to go public | TechCrunch

Serve Robotics, the autonomous sidewalk supply robotic startup that spun out of Uber’s acquisition of Postmates, goes public by way of a reverse merger with a clean verify firm.

The reverse merger with Patricia Acquisition Corp was accomplished this month, in line with regulatory filings. Forward of the merger, Serve raised $30 million in a spherical led by current buyers Uber, Nvidia and Wavemaker Companions. New buyers Mark Tompkins and Republic Deal Room additionally participated. The startup-soon-to-be-public-company has raised a complete of $56 million.

Upon the closing of the merger, Uber held a 16.2% stake and Nvidia an 11% stake in Serve, in line with regulatory filings. Sarfraz Maredia, Uber’s vp of supply and head of its Americas area, has joined Serve’s board.

Serve Robotics began its life as Postmates X, the robotics division of on-demand supply firm Postmates. The autonomous sidewalk robots began delivering to Postmates prospects in a number of Los Angeles neighborhoods in 2018. It began a industrial service in 2020.

Uber acquired Postmates in late 2020 for $2.65 billion. Three months later, Postmates X spun out as an independent company known as Serve Robotics. The brand new title was taken from the autonomous sidewalk supply bot that was developed and piloted by Postmates.

Ali Kashani, who led Postmates X, is co-founder and CEO of Serve Robotics.

Kashani informed TechCrunch that he was by no means in a rush to take the autonomous supply robotic firm public. Nevertheless, he stated he sees going public the sooner and extra environment friendly solution to capitalize.

Serendipity could have additionally performed a job.

Final March, the corporate was within the midst of elevating one other spherical of funding from enterprise capital companies when issues concerning the solvency of Silicon Valley Financial institution brought on one of many largest financial institution runs in historical past. Serve, which had 100% of its funds in SVB (all of which have been recovered) was all of the sudden thrust into new, unsure territory.

The incident brought on Kashani to take a more in-depth have a look at the corporate’s method to elevating capital. “We would have liked a broader scope of buyers,” he stated. It made no sense to stay with one sort of investor.

The blank-check merger alternative emerged simply days later.

Serve stated it plans to make use of the extra financing to enter new markets within the U.S. and advance its expertise. The corporate additionally plans to scale up its current 100-robot supply fleet. Serve has a industrial settlement with Uber to deploy up to 2,000 robots with Uber Eats.

Kashani contends that the corporate is nicely positioned to scale and famous that supply quantity has grown greater than 30% month-over-month on common for the previous 18 months.

“This factor is working– and what it requires is gas,” he stated.