Uber Surprises Serve Robotics by Selling Entire Stake

Uber has quietly sold off its entire stake in Serve Robotics, the autonomous sidewalk delivery robot company that spun out of the ride-hailing giant over five years ago. The move, disclosed in a regulatory filing first reported by Bloomberg, marks a definitive end to Uber's financial involvement with the startup, although the divestment had been building for at least a year, with Uber reducing its holdings throughout 2025. According to a source familiar with the matter, the final selloff caught Serve Robotics off guard—the company learned of Uber's full exit only when the filing became public. Uber did not respond to requests for comment at the time of writing. The divestment comes as the two companies, once tightly aligned, have begun to diverge strategically. Serve Robotics originated as Postmates X, the robotics arm of the on-demand delivery startup Postmates, which Uber acquired in 2020 for $2.65 billion. A year later, Uber spun the division into an independent company, Serve Robotics, named after the sidewalk delivery bot developed and piloted by Postmates X. Uber's relationship with Serve went beyond mere investment; in 2022, the two signed a partnership agreement, which they expanded in May 2023 to deploy up to 2,000 Serve bots through Uber Eats across multiple U.S. markets. However, signs of strain emerged earlier this year. During Serve's second-quarter earnings call, CEO and co-founder Ali Kashani revealed that delivery volume through Uber had declined for the first time since the partnership began in early 2022, following 17 consecutive quarters of growth. Kashani attributed the reversal to lower-than-expected robot utilization and noted that the companies held "differing views" on how to scale their shared autonomous fleet, particularly in areas like fleet coordination and merchant integration. Interestingly, during that same period, Serve's deliveries with another food delivery partner grew nearly 50% in a single quarter. As a result, Kashani stated that renewing the Uber partnership when it expires in early 2027 would likely not be in the company's best interest. Serve Robotics remains one of over 30 autonomous vehicle technology companies that Uber has either partnered with or invested in over the past several years, according to TechCrunch's autonomous vehicle deal tracker. This exit, however, signals a notable shift in Uber's approach to such investments as it recalibrates its strategy in the rapidly evolving delivery robotics space.

via TechCrunch