The funding round was led by Santa Clara-based Silicon Valley Bank; San Francisco-based Founders Fund; and Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI and the former president of Y Combinator. C3 founder Sam Nazarian and Mendocino Farms founders Ellen Chen and Mario Del Pero also participated in the round.
The round increased Coco’s total funding sixfold, up to $43 million from $7 million.
The company plans to use the funding to launch its robots in more cities, up its employee headcount and continue to develop its hardware.
“I strongly believe the delivery service industry in its current state is massively underserving merchants,” Coco co-founder and Chief Executive Zach Rash said in a statement. “We have an enormous opportunity to create a better experience for hundreds of thousands of merchants and their customers today.”
Coco’s robots operate in Santa Monica and five neighborhoods in L.A., the company told TechCrunch. Coco partners with 18 local restaurants, including Umami Burger, Jinya Ramen Bar and Alfalfa.
The company employs 120 people and plans to increase its headcount to more than 1,000 by the end of 2021, TechCrunch
reported.
