New Delhi:- Serve Robotics, the automated sidewalk delivery robot startup spun off from Uber's acquisition of Postmates, is going public through a reverse merger with an empty checkout company.

The reverse merger with Patricia Acquisition Corp was completed this month, according to regulatory filings. Prior to the merger, Serve raised $30 million in a round led by existing investors Uber, Nvidia, and Wavemaker Partners. New investors Mark Tompkins and Republic Deal Room also joined. The startup going public has raised a total of $56 million.

At the close of the merger, Uber held a 16.2% stake and Nvidia held an 11% stake in Serve, according to regulatory filings. Sarfraz Maredia, Uber's vice president of delivery and head of the Americas region, has joined Serve's board.

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Serve Robotics began operations as Postmates X, the robotics division of the on-demand delivery company Postmates. Automated sidewalk robots began delivering packages to Postmates customers in certain Los Angeles neighborhoods in 2018. It launched commercial service in 2020. Uber acquired Postmates at the end of 2020 for $2.65 billion. Three months later, Postmates X became an independent company called Serve Robotics. The new name is taken from the automated sidewalk delivery robot developed and tested by Postmates.

Ali Kashani, who runs Postmates X, is the co-founder and CEO of Serve Robotics. Kashani told TechCrunch that he was never in a hurry to take the automated delivery robot company public. However, he said he considers an IPO to be the fastest and most efficient way to raise capital.

Serendipity may also play a role.

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Last March, the company was in the process of raising a new round of funding from venture capitalists when concerns about Silicon Valley Bank's solvency sparked one of its biggest bank runaways. The largest in history. Servants who had 100% of their money in SVB (all of which were withdrawn) were suddenly thrown into uncertain new territory.

The incident prompted Kashani to take a closer look at the company's approach to raising capital. "We need more investors," he said. It makes no sense to stick with just one type of investor.

The opportunity to merge by blank check appeared a few days later.

Catering said it plans to use the additional funding to enter new markets in the United States and improve its technology. The company also plans to expand its existing delivery fleet to 100 robots. Serving has a commercial agreement with Uber to deploy up to 2,000 robots with Uber Eats.

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Kashani said the company is well-positioned to scale, noting that shipping volumes have grown by more than 30% month-on-month on average over the past 18 months. "This thing works - and what it needs is fuel," he said.

Uber and chipmaker Nvidia helped a startup called Serve Robotics start moving around in public and started working on both sides of the road as postal buddies.