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

Rivr, a Zurich-based autonomous robotics startup known for its stair-climbing delivery robot, has been acquired by Amazon in a deal that signals the e-commerce giant’s interest in home delivery. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Co-founder and CEO Marko Bjelonic, who once described the four-legged, wheeled robot to TechCrunch as a “dog on skates” shared the news of the acquisition. It’s LinkedIn. The information was the first in report the deal.

Bjelonic said in his LinkedIn post that the acquisition will “accelerate our vision of building general physical AI through home delivery, bringing robotics and AI closer to real-world deployment at scale,” meaning, in layman’s terms, Amazon’s resources should help Rivr bring its robots to more doors, faster.

Last year, Rivr launched a pilot program in Austin with Veho, a package delivery company. Bjelonic said, at the time, that he hoped to learn from the partnership with Veho and eventually scale to 100 bots by 2026. It’s unclear if the company was ever able to reach that milestone.

TechCrunch has contacted Rivr for comment.

Rivr caught Amazon’s attention long before its pilot program. The Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund and Bezos Expeditions invested in Rivr as part of a $22.2 million seed round that closed in 2024, according to PitchBook. The startup, which had raised a total of $25 million, was last valued at $100 million.