Serve Robotics has raised $80 million through a direct offering of 4.2 million shares of common stock, securing additional capital to support its growth plans through 2026. This funding will help the company scale its fleet of delivery robots, with the goal of expanding from the 100 robots currently operating in Los Angeles to 2,000 robots across multiple U.S. cities by the end of 2025.
“We’re not taking more money to just burn through it in the next year,” said Serve CFO Brian Read in an interview with TechCrunch. “This is the long-term coffer to help us as we get beyond these 2,000 robots.”
The new capital came from unnamed institutional investors and follows a previous $86 million raised in December 2024, bringing Serve’s total funding in the past year to over $247 million. Serve, which went public in April 2024 through a reverse merger, plans to use the funds for working capital to continue developing its business and deploying its robot fleet.
Read explained that the company intends to leverage its cash reserves for self-funding equipment investments, which will help reduce reliance on financing and the associated costs. “We’ve moved past [equipment financing] now, so we get better cash flow. We have ownership of these robots now, so we’re really giving ourselves some more flexibility in our financial direction,” he said.
Currently, Serve operates approximately 100 robots in Los Angeles, delivering for around 300 restaurants through Uber Eats and 7-Eleven. The company also began a trial partnership with Wing in Dallas in October, combining robots and drones for delivery services. With plans to deploy 250 more robots in Los Angeles by early 2025 and ramp up to 2,000 robots across the U.S. by the end of the year, Serve anticipates becoming cash-flow positive once its fleet reaches full utilization.
