Key facts
- Uber has sold its entire stake in Serve Robotics.
- The divestiture was disclosed in a regulatory filing.
- Serve Robotics was surprised by the timing of the selloff.
- Serve Robotics experienced a decline in delivery volume through Uber in its second quarter.
- Serve Robotics cited differing views on operating models with Uber.
- Serve Robotics does not anticipate renewing its partnership with Uber.
Uber has divested its entire stake in Serve Robotics, an autonomous delivery robot company that originated from Uber's acquisition of Postmates. The move, disclosed in a regulatory filing, reportedly came as a surprise to Serve Robotics, which learned of the sale upon its official announcement. This divestiture signals a divergence in business strategies between the two companies, which had previously been closely aligned.
Serve Robotics began as Postmates X, the robotics division of Postmates, which Uber acquired in 2020. In 2021, this division spun out to become Serve Robotics. Uber not only invested in Serve but also partnered with the company, agreeing in May 2023 to deploy up to 2,000 of Serve's sidewalk bots on the Uber app across various U.S. markets.
However, Serve Robotics' CEO, Ali Kashani, indicated on a recent earnings call that the trend of growing delivery volume through Uber had reversed in the second quarter due to lower-than-expected robot utilization. Kashani cited differing views between the companies on the operating model for scaling their autonomous fleet, including fleet coordination and merchant integration. He also noted that Serve Robotics had seen significant growth with another delivery partner during the same period. Consequently, Serve Robotics does not anticipate renewing its partnership agreement with Uber when it expires in early 2027.