Delivery robot company Savioke raises $13.4 million to expand into hospitals | Tech News

Savioke, maker of delivery robot Relay, today announced the closure of a $13.4 million funding round. Its Relay robot has operated in hotels since last year, and the company will use the funding to place the robots into hospitals.

“With the new round of funding, we are expanding into the hospital market where Relay can help nurses, lab technicians, and other healthcare workers deliver essential items like specimens, medication, and supplies throughout the hospital,” the company said in a blog post today.

In the hospital environment, Savioke competes with companies like Diligent Robotics that also intend to bring specialized service robots into hospitals and laboratories.

Savioke began operating in high-end hotels in the United States and Singapore last year. Relay is one of a series of robots or AI-powered services being made to autonomously carry items from place to place to complete customer orders.

Robomart is a driverless convenience store that plans to begin a pilot program in the San Francisco Bay Area this fall, and Nuro is partnering with Kroger to deliver groceries.

Startups Marble and Starship Technologies, which both recently closed funding rounds, make delivery robots that travel on sidewalks.

Investors in the round include Swisslog Healthcare, NESIC, Recruit, and Brain Corp, a company backed by SoftBank Vision Fund and Qualcomm Ventures that makes self-driving technology for robots. Savioke will use Brain Corp’s BrainOS platform as part of its plan to expand into more health care environments.

“Working with Brain Corp’s BrainOS platform will help Savioke scale efficiently to quickly deliver robotic solutions to our customers and partners in the global healthcare, hospitality and logistics markets,” Savioke founder and CEO Steve Cousins said in a statement. “As we continue to expand, BrainOS will allow us to better focus our internal development efforts on customer-specific applications and environments.”

Established in 2014, Savioke is based in San Jose, California and has raised $31 million to date.