Marble builds autonomous sidewalk delivery robots originally used for food delivery and is repositioning itself as a last-mile logistics company. Its vehicles use on-board LiDAR for navigation and have plans for temperature control to keep food hot or cold. The company says it plans to expand trials beyond food into groceries, prescriptions and package delivery to rearchitect the urban supply chain. Marble’s CEO frames the opportunity as meeting consumer demand for faster, cheaper delivery driven by the "Amazon effect." The startup faces regulatory hurdles after San Francisco halted sidewalk trials, and it is exploring other testing locations while continuing to engage local regulators. Financially, Marble recently closed a Series A and has now raised a total of $15 million. Marble builds ground-based autonomous robots equipped with lidar, cameras, ultrasonic sensors and Nvidia Jetson TX1 processors that navigate sidewalks using high-resolution 3-D maps. The company is testing robot food delivery in select San Francisco neighborhoods in partnership with Yelp Eat24, typically serving trips within about one mile. Customers opt in on the Eat24 app, receive a PIN to unlock the robot’s cargo bay, and Marble currently relies on restaurant heat bags for temperature control. Marble plans future modular back sections with temperature control to support groceries, pharmacy and parcel delivery. The company developed its robots at Lemnos Labs and conducts tests with human chaperones and remote monitoring to gather community feedback. Marble has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Eclipse Ventures and receives per-delivery fees and any tips through partnerships like Yelp Eat24.

Total raised

$14M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Apr 2018