Back in 2019, when we published a similar report, autonomous delivery robots were a futuristic curiosity – cute, slow-moving boxes trundling along sidewalks, mostly on college campuses or in pilot projects.
Fast-forward to 2025, and the ADR industry has grown up. While some early movers have vanished, others have scaled, raised millions in funding, and secured major partnerships.
From sidewalk robots to street-legal pods and long-range drones, the sector now spans a wide range of technologies and business models.
Here’s a look at 20 of the most prominent companies in the autonomous delivery space today, ranked by market activity, investment, partnerships, and media visibility.
1. Nuro
Headquarters: California, USA
Nuro remains the industry’s front-runner, thanks to its purpose-built autonomous vehicles and partnerships with Kroger, Domino’s, FedEx, and Walmart.
Though it laid off workers during sector-wide cutbacks, Nuro continues to test and operate its R2 delivery pods across several U.S. cities, with full regulatory support in states like California and Texas.
2. Starship Technologies
Headquarters: San Francisco, USA & Tallinn, Estonia
Starship’s small, boxy delivery bots are among the most recognizable in the world. With millions of successful deliveries on university campuses and in neighborhoods in over 20 countries, Starship has arguably done more than any other company to normalize autonomous delivery.
3. Zipline
Headquarters: South San Francisco, USA
Initially a medical drone company operating in Rwanda and Ghana, Zipline has pivoted to commercial delivery in the US with partnerships including Walmart. Its latest fixed-wing drones with tethered drop-off systems offer quiet, precise suburban deliveries – and the company has logged over 100 million miles.
4. Serve Robotics
Headquarters: California, USA
Born from Postmates (and backed by Uber), Serve Robotics has quickly become a major sidewalk delivery operator. The company went public in 2024 and now deploys its robots in urban environments including Los Angeles and Dallas, where it collaborates with Uber Eats and 7-Eleven.
5. JD Logistics (JD.com)
Headquarters: Beijing, China
JD.com’s logistics division has developed both small delivery robots and larger autonomous vehicles. While they mainly operate in tightly controlled Chinese urban zones, JD’s robots are central to China’s state-backed push into smart logistics.
6. Ottonomy.IO
Headquarters: New York, USA
Ottonomy’s Ottobot can operate both indoors and outdoors, and it’s been trialed in airports, malls, and even retail chains. The company raised a fresh seed round in 2024 and has expanded deployments in Europe, India, and North America.
7. Kiwibot
Headquarters: Berkeley, USA and Medellín, Colombia
One of the earliest to target college campuses, Kiwibot has completed more than 250,000 deliveries and is now focused on reaching Level 4 autonomy. It has a strong presence in cities like Pittsburgh, Miami, and Los Angeles.
8. Cartken
Headquarters: Oakland, USA
Founded by ex-Google engineers, Cartken builds compact sidewalk bots that are now operating in Japan, Europe, and the US through deals with Mitsubishi, Grubhub, and university campuses.
9. Refraction AI
Headquarters: Michigan, USA
Refraction’s REV-1 robots use bike lanes instead of sidewalks, giving them a hybrid advantage in speed and route flexibility. After pilot runs in Austin and Ann Arbor, the company is expanding into grocery and meal delivery partnerships.
10. Manna
Headquarters: Dublin, Ireland
Manna has positioned itself as a high-frequency drone delivery company, particularly focused on suburban environments. It now handles thousands of food and medicine deliveries weekly across Ireland and is working on regulatory approval in the US.
11. Alibaba Group (Cainiao)
Headquarters: Hangzhou, China
Alibaba’s Cainiao logistics division is developing wheeled delivery robots for university campuses and gated communities. The bots are integrated with Alibaba’s e-commerce ecosystem and operate in pilot programs across China.
12. Relay Robotics (formerly Savioke)
Headquarters: California, USA
Relay’s indoor delivery bots are a staple in hospitality and healthcare, especially in hotels and hospitals. The robots are among the few that specialize in indoor navigation, delivering linens, medicine, and meals.
13. Delivers.AI
Headquarters: London, UK and Istanbul, Turkey
This startup has a strong presence in European markets, integrating its delivery robots with food platforms and national postal systems. It focuses on the dense, complex urban environments of Turkey and the UK.
14. Neolix
Headquarters: Beijing, China
Backed by Chinese investors, Neolix’s larger autonomous vans operate in logistics zones and city centers. Their vehicle resembles a mini delivery truck and is being used for retail promotions as well as parcel delivery.
15. Panasonic
Headquarters: Osaka, Japan
Panasonic has introduced several autonomous delivery concepts, including robots that work in shopping centers and residential neighborhoods in Japan. Their focus is integration with smart cities and IoT ecosystems.
16. Yika Zhiche
Headquarters: Shenzhen, China
A lesser-known but fast-growing company in China’s ADR scene, Yika Zhiche builds autonomous delivery vehicles tailored for last-mile logistics. Backed by local venture capital and municipal programs.
17. Redwing Labs
Headquarters: Bangalore, India
This drone delivery company focuses on remote regions in India, particularly for medical supplies and vaccines. Redwing is part of India’s growing emphasis on “drone corridors” for public health logistics.
18. Eliport
Headquarters: Barcelona, Spain
Eliport specializes in low-speed, sidewalk-friendly bots for short-range urban delivery. The startup emphasizes quiet operation and modular design and is exploring rollouts in French and Spanish cities.
19. TeleRetail (now Aito)
Headquarters: Zurich, Switzerland
TeleRetail rebranded as Aito in 2024 and focuses on small autonomous shuttles for rural and suburban logistics. It has partnered with several European courier services to test lightweight parcel delivery.
20. Aethon
Headquarters: Pittsburgh, USA
Aethon has long served the healthcare industry with its TUG indoor mobile robots. While not a delivery robot in the sidewalk sense, its sustained role in hospital logistics earns it a place on this list.
What happened to some of the early contenders?
Not all companies from the 2019 wave survived the march to 2025. Amazon shut down its Scout robot program in 2022, citing scalability concerns. FedEx did the same with its Roxo project.
Starsky Robotics, which had briefly pivoted to last-mile automation, folded entirely. These moves underscore a key truth: autonomy is not just a tech problem – it’s also a business challenge.
The sidewalk ahead
The ADR industry is reaching a new level of maturity. Regulatory frameworks are becoming clearer. Robots are moving beyond college campuses into neighborhoods, airports, and even supermarkets.
At the same time, companies must navigate urban infrastructure, public perception, and logistical integration. With the rise of AI copilots and smarter routing systems, the next five years may be even more transformative than the last.
