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Going global from Tallinn — that’s the journey of Estonian DeepTech startup Starship Technologies, and it’s about to accelerate dramatically. Picture this: you order dinner, and instead of a person on a bike, a small autonomous robot rolls up to your door with your meal. This is already a reality in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, where Starship is partnering with Bolt since last year, but the idea is gaining global momentum.
Starship Technologies and Uber Eats just announced a global partnership that will bring autonomous sidewalk robots to delivery customers across multiple continents. The rollout starts in Leeds, UK, next month, expands to multiple European countries in 2026, and reaches the U.S. by 2027.
These aren’t experimental prototypes: Starship’s robots have already completed over 9 million deliveries across seven countries. With a fleet of 2,700 robots currently operating, the company plans to scale up to 12,000 robots by 2027, making this one of the most ambitious autonomous delivery expansions to date.
Starship’s robots operate at Level 4 autonomy, meaning they can handle deliveries completely independently in designated areas. They’re designed to deliver orders within 30 minutes for distances up to 2 miles, navigating sidewalks, crossing streets, and avoiding obstacles along the way.
The technology has been refined through extensive real-world experience. Starship robots collectively make over 100,000 road crossings every day, generating a massive dataset of approximately 200 million crossings that continuously improves their AI models. They’ve proven they can operate safely in all weather conditions while maintaining profitability—two critical hurdles for autonomous delivery.
Here’s how the company imagines a win-win scenario. For consumers, this partnership promises faster, more affordable deliveries. For restaurants and merchants, it means lower delivery costs. And for cities, it offers a glimpse of a future where urban logistics are quieter, cleaner, and more efficient than today’s fleet of cars and motorcycles.
And all of this has begun in Estonia in 2014, when Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis launched their new project. Building on Estonia’s reputation as a tech innovation hub, they spent over a decade solving the practical challenges of autonomous delivery — from regulatory approval across different countries to making the economics work at scale.
The company has also been investors’ favourite — this October, Starship picked up a $50M round to boost global scale, bringing the total funding amount to over $280M. However, with the potential to cover Uber’s massive global platform, which reaches 10,000 cities, this might be just the beginning.
