The autonomous sidewalk delivery robot startup that sprang from Uber’s acquisition of Postmates, will go public after a reverse merger with Serve Robotics.
According to regulatory records, the reverse merger with Patricia Acquisition Corp. was finished this month.
Prior to the merger, Uber, Nvidia, and Wavemaker Partners, who were already investors in Serve, launched a $30 million funding round for the company. Mark Tompkins, a brand-new investor, and Republic Deal Room also took part. The soon-to-be-public startup company has raised $56 million in total.
According to regulatory documents, Uber owned 16.2% of Serve at the time of the acquisition, while Nvidia owned 11%. Uber’s vice president of delivery and region manager for the Americas, Sarfraz Maredia, has joined the board of Serve.
Initially known as Postmates X, the robotics arm of on-demand delivery service Postmates, Serve Robotics was formerly known as Postmates. In many Los Angeles neighbourhoods, the autonomous sidewalk robots began delivering to Postmates customers in 2018. In 2020, it launched a for-profit service.
Postmates was purchased by Uber for $2.65 billion in late 2020. Postmates X split off as an independent startup called Serve Robotics three months later. The new moniker was inspired by Postmates’ autonomous sidewalk delivery bot, which it built and tested.
