Serve Robotics, the sidewalk delivery robot company backed by Nvidia and Uber, is expanding into a new category with its latest acquisition: healthcare. The Los Angeles-based company announced it was acquiring Diligent Robotics, a startup that builds robots named Moxi designed to assist in hospitals by delivering lab samples and supplies. The deal values Diligent’s common stock at $29 million.
Diligent Robotics was founded in 2017 by Andrea Thomaz and Vivian Chu and has raised more than $75 million in venture capital, most recently a $25 million funding round in 2023.
This acquisition marks Serve’s first foray beyond its food-delivery roots. The sidewalk delivery robots company was incubated inside food delivery company Postmates in 2017. The project continued after Uber bought Postmates, before spinning off in 2021. Serve went public in April 2024 via a reverse merger.
Serve co-founder and CEO Ali Kashani does not view the acquisition as a big deviation from the company’s initial target. While the company has not focused specifically on healthcare thus far, how Diligent’s robot Moxi operates fits squarely into the company’s thesis around last-mile delivery and robots that can navigate alongside humans.
Kashani described the move as a classic example of a prepared mind meeting opportunity. Robots that move among people represent the broader opportunity, and once you solve that problem, you can bring the technology to many other environments. Healthcare was not a specific expansion goal, but the companies were introduced at the perfect time as Diligent was looking to scale and Serve was exploring new areas.
Kashani praised Diligent’s team, noting they share a similar DNA of building in real life rather than in a lab. Diligent will continue to operate relatively independently within Serve but will tap into Serve’s software and tools to achieve scale, with both companies sharing technology and collaborating.
Kashani emphasized this is not a pivot for the company, nor does it signal a plan to acquire more startups. Serve remains very focused on its sidewalk-delivery robots but will keep its eyes open for interesting companies as potential partners. The company grew its fleet of robots from 100 to more than 2,000 in 2025 and signed a partnership with DoorDash to facilitate deliveries in Los Angeles.
According to Kashani, the sidewalk business is what fuels everything, creating the technology and operating one of the largest autonomous fleets in the world, which in turn develops the capabilities needed for other applications.