Kiwibot, a robotic last-mile delivery company, is partnering with Sodexo, a food services and facilities management company, to expand its robotic fleet to “drive the future of smart university campuses”.
This August, the two companies will make robot deliveries available at three campuses in the US:
- New Mexico State University;
- Loyola Marymount University, California; and
- Gonzaga University, Washington.
Kiwibot says it offers full remote and in-field customer support to businesses and integrates with any business’s point-of-sale to distribute their food products via “powerful, cute-looking robots”.
Therefore, Kiwibot and Sodexo together envision a subscription program where every person in a Sodexo-serviced location can access any goods that can fit into a robot, and are located within a university campus.
At the three universities mentioned, college students will be able to use their meal plans to take advantage of Kiwibot delivery, through their local delivery app Bite+.
However, anyone with access to the app can enjoy the service, with each delivery having a flat cost of $2, plus 10 percent of the order size.
The rollout will be supported by Sodexo and its ongoing commitment to implement safe, convenient food service solutions that continue to surprise and delight customers.
Sodexo has 420,000 employees and serves more than 100 million customers in 64 countries around the world.
Kiwibot was founded in 2017, and became renowned after launching a pilot at the University of California-Berkeley campus.
After over 150,000 deliveries were completed at Berkeley, with product development and testing for the B2C model, Kiwibot expanded to San Jose, Santa Monica, Denver, Dallas, Taipei, and Medellin with a new B2B business model and partners.
Felipe Chávez Cortés, the CEO and co-founder of Kiwibot, says: “Our success comes from incredible customers like Sodexo who are willing to change the status quo.
“This is just the beginning of our offerings to college students to test out the latest in robotic food delivery, and provide universities across the US with the future of smart campuses.”
Aurelia Valot, the VP of digital transformation and innovation, Sodexo, says: “We are excited to grow our robot food delivery service with Kiwibot and provide customers with a safe, convenient, contactless, and innovative solution.
“We are looking forward to expanding this offering in the coming months.”
