Milton Keynes robots trundle through the snow to make their millionth worldwide delivery

Starship Technologies, which runs robots all over the world, is the first autonomous delivery company in the world to reach this milestone.

The company has seen exceptional growth since starting its first commercial delivery service in 2018.

Over the past year, the company has seen order numbers in Milton Keynes triple. With 120 robots, MK now is home to the world’s largest fleet of autonomous robots.

A further 30 robots are serving residents in Northampton following the launch of Starship’s service last November and operations there are set to be increased over the coming week.

Starship this week announced it has raised an additional $17m from investors, bringing its total funding to $102m to date . The investors include TDK Ventures and Goodyear Ventures.

The company has also added its service in the US to two new university campuses - UCLA and Bridgewater State University (Massachusetts).

Ahti Heinla, Co-founder and CEO of Starship Technologies, said: “Completing one million deliveries is a milestone that everyone at Starship is celebrating.

“We are delivering a fully commercial service operating 24-7 across five different countries now doing thousands of deliveries a day and millions of autonomous miles per year. This scale puts Starship on par with the biggest companies in the self-driving car market when it comes to miles travelled in the last year alone. We’re proud to be offering a crucial service that is now becoming part of everyday life for millions of people.”

The Starship Food Delivery app is available for download on iOS and Android. To get started, users choose from a range of their favourite food or drink items, then drop a pin where they want their delivery to be sent. They can then watch as the robot makes its journey to them, via an interactive map. Once the robot arrives, they receive an alert, and can then meet and unlock it through the app.

Starship Technologies operates commercially on a daily basis around the world. Its zero-emission robots have travelled millions of miles and make more than 50,000 road crossings every day.