Kiwibot Completes Pre-Series A of $7.5M, Closes Its Expansion Deal with Sodexo
Kiwibots are set to be rolling out to 50 college campuses around the country.
Thanks to an expanded contract with one of its lead investors, robotics delivery company Kiwibot plans to deploy more than 1,200 of its mobile robots to 50 college campuses around the U.S. by the end of this year.
Calling it its “biggest expansion deal,” Kiwibot recently closed on a deal with Issy-les-Moulineaux, France-based Sodexo, a food service and facilitates management company that currently serves more than 850 colleges around the United States and Canada. College students can use their meal plans from Sodexo to use Kiwibot’s delivery service.
Kiwibot has been working with Sodexo since August, doing deliveries in college campuses such as New Mexico State University, Loyola Marymount University, and Gonzaga University.
“The early success of our Kiwibot partnership has shown that automated delivery is not only possible and reliable, it’s desirable,” said Sarosh Mistry, chair of Sodexo North America.“This year, more students than ever will benefit from autonomous delivery, and we’re pleased to be at the forefront of this emerging market.”
VCs order up more robots
Kiwibot also announced that it had raised a pre-Series A of around $7.5 million from five investors, including Sodexo, venture capital firm Headline, and Sol Global Investments, bringing its total raised so far to $14 million.
“As Kiwibot has both cash and contracts in hand, we really appreciate being chosen to help them negotiate with manufacturers, speed the manufacturing process for the next Kiwibot generation and open up Asia’s markets for the robots,” said Joseph Huang, partner at Headline.
The company said the funding will go towards developing further technology and expanding the robot’s reach across multiple college campuses and cities. Its mobile robots have Level 3 autonomy.
“We have been intensely working in the robotic food delivery field for the last five years, and this funding will allow us to expand the business at the speed that the market is demanding,” said Felipe Chávez Cortés, CEO and co-founder of Kiwibot. “We are set to build the most advanced robot delivery fleet: building 100 robots a month, expanding to exciting locations, and connecting with new partners, universities, and cities to advance safe and equitable mobility with zero-emission solutions.”
Kiwibot on the move
Founded in 2017, Kiwibot has offices in Columbia and Los Angeles, but it recently moved its headquarters to Miami. It launched with a pilot program at the University of California-Berkely college campus.
Since then, its robots have completed more than 150,000 deliveries. The company has expanded, and its robots can be found in San Jose, Santa Monica, Denver, Dallas, Taipei, and Medillin.
Kiwibot says it offers in-field customer support and integration with any business’s point-of-sale to distribute food products, without the high commission rate for food delivery services.
In April 2021, the company launched the new version of its semi-autonomous mobile robot. It also announced partnerships with Segway, the Knight Foundation, Chick-fil-a, and Shopify.
