Amazon acquires Rivr, maker of a stair-climbing delivery robot

Amazon has acquired Rivr, a Zurich-based startup recognized for its stair-climbing delivery robot, highlighting the e-commerce giant’s growing focus on doorstep delivery services. The financial terms of the acquisition remain undisclosed.

Marko Bjelonic, co-founder and CEO of Rivr, who once likened their four-legged wheeled robot to a “dog on roller skates” in a JS interview, announced the acquisition on LinkedIn. The deal was initially reported by The Information.

In his LinkedIn post, Bjelonic expressed that the acquisition will “accelerate our vision of building General Physical AI through doorstep delivery, bringing robotics and AI closer to real-world deployment at scale.” Simply put, Amazon’s resources are expected to expedite Rivr’s ability to deploy robots to more households.

The previous year, Rivr initiated a pilot project in Austin in collaboration with Veho, a package delivery company. Bjelonic had expressed hopes of scaling to 100 robots by 2026 through this partnership, though it’s uncertain if this goal was met.

JS has reached out to Rivr for further commentary.

Amazon’s interest in Rivr dates back to before the pilot program. The Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund and Bezos Expeditions contributed to Rivr’s $22.2 million seed funding round in 2024, as reported by PitchBook. The startup, which had secured a total of $25 million in funding, was last valued at $100 million.