While some startups are looking for investments in garages, others are entering Wall Street with a fleet of autonomous robot couriers. The company Serve Robotics, whose cute six-wheeled messengers are already crawling along the sidewalks of American cities, plans to raise up to $100 million through a public sale of shares. It looks like a ridiculous attempt to sell air until you understand the simple truth: they are not selling iron boxes on wheels, but the right to become a co-owner of the quiet revolution in the logistics of the "last mile".

What kind of company is this and why is it worth $100 million?

Serve Robotics grew out of an internal Uber project and became an independent company in 2021. Their robots look like overfed vacuum cleaner cats, but behind that pretty exterior lies serious technology. These autonomous couriers are capable of transporting loads of up to 25 kg over distances of up to 40 km, navigating an urban environment without human intervention.

"We are not just creating robots, but an alternative transportation network for the cities of the future," the company's founders say.

The attractiveness of Serve Robotics for investors lies in three key factors:

The growing market for food delivery and small parcels is estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars

Proven effectiveness — their robots have already made tens of thousands of commercial trips.

Strategic partnerships with such giants as Uber Eats and 7-Eleven

Why now? Because a foot courier has become a luxury

The economics of shipping in recent years have shown a paradoxical trend: the more we order, the more expensive it costs us. A human courier requires a salary and social contributions and cannot work 24/7. The robot is content with paying for electricity and occasional maintenance.

"The cost of delivery using our robots is already 30-40% lower than using human couriers," the company says.

Robots are especially beneficial for regular routes, such as delivering coffee from cafes to office buildings or lunches to business centers. Once configured, the route can be serviced for years at no additional cost.

What challenges are waiting for robot couriers on the way to mass production?

Despite the optimistic forecasts, street automation has its Achilles' heels:

Regulatory barriers

Each city has its own rules of movement on sidewalks. In some cases, robots require special permits, in others - the mandatory presence of an operator, in others their movement is generally prohibited.

Technical limitations

Heavy rain, snowfall or ice seriously complicate the operation of sensors

Stairs, curbs, and other obstacles require complex engineering solutions.

Vandalism and theft remain a significant problem.

Social acceptance

Pensioners, parents with strollers and cyclists are not thrilled with the appearance of new traffic participants on the sidewalks.

Managing a distributed army of couriers

When the number of autonomous courier robots is in the thousands, the question arises of effective management of this distributed resource. How can orders be optimally distributed between robots? How can I track their location and technical condition?

Specialized platforms may be required to solve such problems. For example, the logic of the ecosystem jobtorob.com , which positions itself as the world's first robot hiring platform, could be adapted to manage a fleet of courier robots. Such a system would allow not only to distribute orders, but also to keep "workbooks" of robots, tracking their performance, rating and service history. The owner of a cafe chain could use a similar platform to "hire" robots during peak delivery hours, providing optimal coverage without maintaining their own fleet.

What does this mean for the future? Cities where parcels deliver themselves

The success of Serve Robotics can change the urban landscape in the same way that car-sharing services once did.:

Reduced traffic

Some of the delivery vehicles will disappear from the streets, reducing congestion

Round-the-clock availability

Night-time delivery will become economically feasible

New business models

There will be micro-delivery services that were impossible due to the high cost of human labor.

"We are at the beginning of a transformation comparable in scale to the advent of courier services in the 19th century," urbanists believe.

The potential $100 million from the stock sale is not the final goal, but just fuel for scaling. Serve Robotics plans to increase its fleet several times and enter new markets. And, perhaps, soon the resume of a successful courier will include not "knowledge of the city", but "an optimized version of navigation software 3.0", and his "workbook" will be stored in a cloud ecosystem that manages a distributed army of autonomous workers.