In 2014, two Skype co-founders, Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis, recognized a fundamental problem in logistics: the last mile of delivery was inefficient, expensive, and environmentally unsustainable. While cars dominated delivery, they noticed an opportunity - sidewalks remained largely untapped. They founded Starship Technologies in Estonia with a vision to revolutionize local delivery through small, friendly autonomous robots that could navigate the world's sidewalks as safely as pedestrians.
The company's journey began with six-wheeled delivery robots designed to carry groceries, hot food, and packages directly to customers' doors. What started as an ambitious idea has transformed into a global operation spanning 270+ locations across multiple countries. Starship's robots have now completed over 9 million autonomous deliveries, traveled more than 12 million miles, and perform 125,000 road crossings daily. These battery-powered, zero-emission robots operate at 99% autonomy using a sophisticated combination of radars, cameras, sensors, and machine learning to navigate safely around pedestrians, vehicles, and obstacles in all weather conditions.
