British Royal Mail Partner Raises €14.5M for Delivery Robots

LONDON -- British urban logistics firm PORT has raised €14.5 million to build autonomous delivery robots and extend its collaboration with Royal Mail, Britain’s post office.

PORT announced the fundraising Nov. 10, with EBRD and Balnord acting as leading investors. It comprises both equity and debt capital, bringing PORT's total capitalization to €29 million.

The funds will be used for the development of PORT’s AI Driver software and autonomous delivery vehicles and for staff recruitment for its research and development department.

The new system is being built by PORT with Royal Mail, but the partners did not provide technical details of the robot or terms of the agreement.

Currently, Royal Mail employs PORT's cargo bicycles for delivery of parcels. As per PORT, its cargo bicycles have delivered over 300,000 parcels since PORT added trailers to its vehicle park in September 2025.

PORT currently runs around 3,500 e-bikes across 24 locations in London, Manchester, and Birmingham. The couriers use the bikes, and PORT offers charging, storage, and maintenance services.

Some of the bikes are outfitted with cameras and lidar sensors powered by Nvidia to gather information about delivery conditions in urban environments, such as curbs, cyclists, and delivery locations.

The information is stored when the bikes are returned to the PORT's hubs and then used to train AI Driver, an algorithm meant to control future delivery robots of the company.

Contrary to other companies gathering training data by using their robotic fleets of testing vehicles, PORT relies on bikes that are used in actual delivery missions. Tech Funding News reported that the company's first autonomous delivery robot will be launched in a few months, delivering parcels.