Los Angeles-based Coco Robotics the creator of zero-emission pink delivery robots, raised funding that valuations the start up at over 80 million dollars in a new round of investments, led by angel investor Sam Altman and Max Altman, in addition to institutional investors Pelion Venture Partners, and Offline Ventures.
Established in 2020, Coco is an urban logistics company speedily growing under the leadership of Brad Squicciarini and Zach Rash. Its self-driving robots have a carrying capacity of about 90 liters, and it has made more than half a million deliveries and is now upbeat in the Helsinki city that is its first in Europe.
One of the most important growth drivers is the fact that Coco Robotics has partnered with OpenAI that was launched in March. This partnership gives the robots state of the art AI to do path planning, obstacle navigation and real-time decision making and OpenAI will get the operational data of the fleet. It is interesting to note that Sam Altman invested in his company more than six months before the OpenAI deal, which is particularly revealing of his confidence in his business.
The new investment will speed up the expansion efforts of Coco aimed at buying more Coco robots and advancing its AI platform and operational infrastructure. Coco is gaining on potential leaders of last-mile deliveries which are already highly competitive, including the likes of Starship Technologies and Serve Robotics, with a view to reach 10,000 robots by 2026.
The zero-emission position of Coco does not only facilitate sustainability objectives but also eases city traffic and emissions savings translated in the delivery perfect reason that Coco achieves by 97 percent. Due to the number of cities becoming environmentally friendly and autonomous, Coco gives an idea of how robotics and AI will change local logistics.
