By Lea Mira, RTN staff writer - 6.12.2025
Coco Robotics, a Los Angeles–based delivery robotics company, announced this week that it has raised $80 million in new funding. The capital will support an aggressive expansion plan aimed at scaling its autonomous delivery fleet for restaurant food and other local orders, advancing its artificial intelligence platform, and growing strategic partnerships with enterprise clients. The round includes participation from several returning investors such as Sam and Max Altman, Pelion Venture Partners, Outlander, and SNR, along with new investors Offline Ventures, DeepWater Asset Management, and Ryan Graves, the CEO of Saltwater and a former Uber executive. This brings Coco’s total funding to over $120 million since its founding in 2020.
Coco has focused on building a delivery model designed for efficiency in short-distance, small-order logistics—precisely the segment that many human-driven delivery models find cost-inefficient. Its fleet of compact, zero-emission delivery robots has already completed over 500,000 deliveries across major U.S. cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami. These vehicles, which resemble high-tech coolers on wheels, are equipped with cameras, sensors, and advanced navigation software to autonomously maneuver sidewalks and curbside environments.
The company has worked with major restaurant delivery platforms including Uber Eats and DoorDash to expand its operational footprint. Last year, Uber Eats launched a partnership with Coco for autonomous deliveries in Los Angeles, expanding that program to Miami in April. Similarly, DoorDash began working with Coco in April to enable deliveries from 600 merchants in Los Angeles and Chicago, with the pilot phase including more than 100,000 deliveries in Los Angeles alone. These partnerships provide critical volume and operational data, allowing Coco to refine its logistics systems and prove out its cost and efficiency model in real-world scenarios.
Coco’s delivery model targets the “last mile” in urban environments, where fast, low-cost, and environmentally friendly delivery is increasingly important to restaurants and consumers alike. According to the company, its autonomous bots are particularly well suited for trips under three miles, which make up a large share of food delivery volume but often carry the lowest margins for human drivers. By offloading these deliveries to small electric robots, Coco aims to reduce operating costs, improve delivery consistency, and lower emissions.
The new funding is expected to help Coco reach its next milestone: expanding its fleet to 10,000 vehicles by 2026. In parallel, the company continues to enhance the intelligence of its platform. In March, Coco announced a collaboration with OpenAI to improve the AI underpinning its routing, obstacle detection, and decision-making capabilities. In exchange, Coco is providing anonymized delivery data to help train OpenAI’s systems on real-world logistics applications. The company views AI not as a future bet but as a present-day enabler of scalable, reliable automation.
Zach Rash, Coco’s co-founder and CEO, said in a statement that the company has intentionally focused on building a technology stack and business model grounded in current economic viability, rather than speculative long-term projections. “We’ve been very intentional about building technology and a business model based on unit economics that work today—not five years down the road,” Rash noted. “We’re now at the forefront of applying AI to solve real, everyday problems in urban logistics, and this funding helps us move faster—from advancing our AI platform to expanding our fleet globally.”
While Coco’s growth plans are ambitious, the company faces the challenge of scaling its delivery service in dense, diverse urban environments while meeting regulatory requirements and maintaining safety. The technology must navigate not only physical obstacles but also municipal policies, unpredictable pedestrian behavior, and the unique demands of each local market. In addition, sustained merchant adoption will be essential for operational and financial success. Coco’s ability to seamlessly integrate into the workflows of restaurants and delivery platforms, while demonstrating a clear return on investment, will be critical as the company expands beyond its initial markets.
Nonetheless, Coco’s funding and operational traction place it among the frontrunners in the emerging field of autonomous delivery. By addressing a high-volume, low-margin segment of the delivery market with a purpose-built, electric alternative, the company is positioning itself as a practical solution for the logistical challenges that restaurants face today. The coming 12 to 24 months will be pivotal as Coco seeks to prove that its combination of robotics, AI, and enterprise partnerships can scale—not just technically, but sustainably.
