Polish last-mile delivery startup Delivery Couple announces its acquirement of German competitor THEO, in turn increasing its fleet size by 260% by the end of 2024. Focused on providing effective, safe and semi-autonomous deliveries, the company is currently operating in four cities across Poland, having piloted the solution across 14 cities.
This acquisition indicates a significant step towards becoming a European last mile leader. Delivery Couple became part of the equity portfolio of EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, after applying and being selected as part of a Startup Investment Open Call in 2023.
Founded in 2021, Delivery Couple was born out of the necessity for contactless deliveries during the Covid-19 pandemic and provides a guaranteed service by providing restaurants, marketplaces, and delivery companies with reliable robot couriers. Each robot is associated with either a female or male persona and is designed to be an aid to humans in providing an automated but friendly service. With a fleet of custom-designed robots, Delivery Couple are driving daily in 4 cities across Poland and guarantee a predictable delivery process, resulting in reduced traffic congestion in areas of operation and a zero-emission technology. Although the absolute necessity of contactless deliveries faded as the pandemic ended, this environmentally friendly and cost-effective technology has a definite place in modern cities.
Of the announcement, CEO and co-founder, Sergiy Lebedyn said: ‘’Germany holds the largest market share in Europe for autonomous last mile deliveries, so the opportunity to gain access to this market with an existing network as built by THEO was not one to miss. Today, we are fully operational and generating profit per unit having completed 4000+ deliveries in Poland and with each delivery we have an opportunity to learn, refine and improve our systems. With a market as large as Germany´s, we of course increase our customer base and our fleet size but also our capacity to improve. We believe the success of our human-centric approach to last mile delivery will be compounded in this new market.’’
Delivery Couple has gone from strength to strength, working in in-house hardware and software technologies and improving quality and percentage of successful deliveries. They took part in the 5G Turbo Accelerator in 2022 which is aimed to address key challenges in urban mobility with a focus on developing 5G technologies and services to improve traffic efficiency and traffic management, smart parking options, and road safety solutions, among others.
EIT Urban Mobility Investment and Portfolio Manager, Jan Hauser commented: ‘’Our first encounter of Delivery Couple and their potential came during an accelerator programme in 2022, and the following year we were pleased to receive, and in-turn approve, an application for funding. As a pan-European investor, EIT Urban Mobility had also previously invested in THEO and was aware of Delivery Couple’s intention to expand for some time. In this and many other instances, we were happy to use our extensive network to connect different players, facilitating and accelerating innovation across the EU.’’
About Delivery Couple
Delivery Couple, a trailblazer in the last-mile delivery landscape, specializes in designing and deploying innovative sidewalk delivery robots. Their cutting-edge technology not only addresses environmental concerns but also ensures financial viability of the company starting from small scale. Unlike many competitors, Delivery Couple has already achieved operational profitability. For more information visit www.deliverycouple.com
