Cartken Raises $10M for Its Profitable Delivery Bots

Co-Founder Anjali Naik shares growth plans

Five year old delivery robotics startup Cartken just raised a fresh $10 million in funding, led by 468 Capital, with participation from Incubate Fund, LDV Partners, Vela Partners, Magna International, Mitsubishi Electric, Shell Ventures, and Volex.

Cartken has now raised $22.5 million in total funding, with plans to use the new capital to pursue more enterprise relationships and advance its lidar-free AV technology. In the past few years, the California-based company has made notable forays into the industrial AMR space, working with biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, OEM and chemical conglomerates, while scaling its sidewalk delivery robotics business to the point of profitability.

We checked in with Co-Founder and COO Anjali Naik, to learn about how different countries are adopting autonomous mobile robotics technology, as well as which universities are proving to be the most enthusiastic users.

Jonah Bliss: It's a tough fundraising environment out there for hardware-oriented startups; what made Cartken's narrative attractive to investors?

Anjali Naik: Cartken's story stands out because of our AI-powered autonomy stack and hardware-agnostic approach, allowing our robots to work seamlessly both indoors and outdoors. This capability fills a crucial gap in industrial automation and last-mile delivery, where many traditional mobile robot solutions fall short.

Our tech stack uses low-cost sensors and cameras instead of expensive LIDAR systems, making our technology both reliable and cost-effective.

Plus, our track record is strong. We've completed hundreds of thousands of deliveries and saved employees thousands of hours in transportation time. We accomplished quite a lot with a small team and were capital efficient along the way. This makes Cartken a highly attractive investment.

Which investors are new to Cartken?

468 Capital, LDV Partners and Volex.

How do you plan to deploy the fresh capital?

The funding will be used to deepen enterprise partnerships, further advance Cartken’s self-driving technology, and drive further integration of Cartken's robots into biotech, pharmaceutical, chemical, and automotive sectors. 

If the food delivery business is profitable, why spend resources on the AMR space?