Dive Brief:
- Kiwibot has secured $10 million through a financing partnership with asset financing group Kineo Finance, the company announced Wednesday.
- This financing will help Kiwibot manufacture and scale its robotic fleet.
- Kiwibot has been increasingly deploying its bots across college campuses, and has partnerships with Grubhub and Sodexo.
Dive Insight:
The financing from Kineo will help Kiwibot continue its current growth trajectory. Last year, Kiwibot launched 25 delivery bots at Loyola Marymount University to deliver from various retail options, including several restaurants accessible via Sodexo’s Everyday mobile app. Kiwibot’s larger partnership with Sodexo includes the deployment of over 1,000 delivery bots across 50 college campuses.
“This partnership will take our operations to the next level: We’ll be closer to becoming the standard solution for smart cities that leverage sustainable technology to enhance people’s quality of life. We’re pleased to be backed by companies who believe in building accessible and convenient robotics services,” Felipe Chávez, CEO and co-founder Kiwibot, said of the Kineo financing in a statement.
Previously, Kiwibot raised $7.5 million in pre-Series A financing last year, bringing its total capital raised to $14 million But venture capital funding has largely dried up for robotics — over the past five years, 2022 made up the second worst year for robotics investments, according to TechCrunch.
Kiwibot turned to an alternative to venture capital. Kineo provides asset financing for startups that limits dilution so they can instead focus on growth, the company said. For example, the firm provided an asset financing program for a robotics company that had fixed interest payments, allowing the robotics company to focus on its higher-margin software instead of capital-intensive hardware.
This partnership is also Kineo’s first in the delivery-as-a-service industry, and expands its portfolio of high-tech companies that include medical, logistics and Internet of Things segments.
