On the left, Serve Robotics’ delivery robot, and on the right, Diligent Robotics’ Moxi. | Source: Serve Robotics, Diligent Robotics
Serve Robotics Inc., a developer of sidewalk delivery robots, today said it is acquiring Diligent Robotics Inc. for $29 million. Diligent is the company behind Moxi, a mobile robot that navigates hospitals to deliver medical supplies.
The companies said acquisition will open up new opportunities. Redwood City, Calif.-based Serve, which has deployed more than 2,000 sidewalk delivery robots in the U.S., last year raised more than $100 million and acquired the assets of Voysys and Vayu Robotics.
With the Diligent acquisition, Serve Robotics is making its first foray into indoor environments, mobile manipulation, and the healthcare industry. Austin, Texas-based Diligent currently currently operates its Moxi robots in more than 25 hospitals, where robots have completed over 1.25 million tasks.
“This is a case of prepared mind meets opportunity,” said Ali Kashani, co-founder and CEO of Serve Robotics. “We’ve known about [Diligent].”
“There’s a lot we like about Diligent and the team,” he told The Robot Report. “They’re one of the few robotics companies that have actually been out in the field with a real skilled fleet. That’s something that’s very much a match to our DNA. From the beginning, we try to go out and learn in the real world and build robots that are commercially out there at some scale.”
Diligent opens the door for mobile manipulation
One of the biggest differences between Moxi, Diligent’s robot, and Serve’s robots is Moxi’s arm, which enables it to manipulate and affect the world around it. Moxi can open doors, interact with elevators, and more. The mobile robot also has extensive experience operating in very crowded indoor environments, which is new for Serve.
“In robotics, in general, you do have those two problem sets to solve: the navigation and manipulation,” Kashani said. “Bringing this together makes a lot of sense because directionally, we want to reach indoors, and we want to reach applications that require some degree of manipulation.”
“I see this as almost an evolution,” he added. “We’ve always imagined humanoids as what the future is. It’s really nice to see so much investment and excitement in that field, but we’ve always liked to get there through commercial applications and do things that actually make money and learn from being in the real world.”
Meanwhile, Serve’s experience in outdoor robotics could make Moxi even more flexible. “We’ve definitely heard, and we’ve talked to some hospitals, that being able to leave a facility and go outside can be really valuable,” Kashani said.
Serve Robotics to ‘supercharge’ Diligent’s deployments
Serve Robotics said it has spent the past year rapidly expanding the number of robots it has operating in the world doing real work. With this experience, Kashani said he hopes to use Serve’s scaling and manufacturing capabilities to help Diligent Robotics to do the same.
“A year ago, we had deployed 100 robots, and we scaled to 2,000,” Kashani said. “[Diligent] is at about 100 robots right now. So, a lot of what we have created — infrastructure, systems, processes, and, of course, autonomy and AI and models — all that stuff can be useful. Ultimately, what we want is to supercharge Diligent and their team.”
Andrea Thomaz, co-founder and the current CEO of Diligent, will continue leading the company moving forward. Kashani said its team members will now have “more power behind them.”
For Serve, the acquisition is part of its roadmap to bring its platform to many different industries and environments.
“We have one of the largest autonomous fleets in the world right now, and we are learning so much from that. We are getting data from it that helps us with developing our models,” Kashani said. “All of that is what ultimately enables us to make Diligent and other folks that want to use our platforms to succeed.”
“Expanding the operating domain from just outdoors to now also indoors gives access to some unique data to teach robots how to navigate new environments,” he continued. “Our AI models already are doing a really fantastic job in cities. Hopefully, that enables the Moxi robots to operate even better.”
Serve Robotics said it expects the deal to close in the first quarter of 2026. The company could also pay an additional $5.3 million to Diligent shareholders upon the achievement of specified milestones.
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