iFood's Seed Investment in Synkar Marks Giant Milestone in the Autonomous Food Delivery Market

Toronto, ON - One of South America's leading online food ordering and food delivery platforms has made a major investment in autonomous food delivery robots.

iFood made a strategic seed investment into Synkar, a Canadian startup focused on robotics and autonomous vehicles. The two companies are also collaborating on a pilot project that will see the first wave of Synkar robots rolled out immediately, with aggressive plans to scale the fleet to 100 robots in the field by 2022.

"During the global pandemic, the need for safe and contactless food delivery options certainly skyrocketed. However, even as we're poised to enter the post-pandemic world, companies have seen the tremendous value that autonomous delivery options can offer," said Matheus João Accoroni Theodoro, Co-Founder and CEO of Synkar Autonomous.

iFood's investment in Synkar represents the food delivery leader doubling down on their recent investments in AI and robotics. For example, they have recently used location-based AI and behavioural data to improve the efficiency of their delivery logistics. They are now able to factor in the preparation time of a given dish to ensure an optimal pick-up time for their partner deliverers.

iFood will be leveraging Synkar robots to handle the last leg of delivery in large residential condominiums, particularly the residences looking to maintain deliveries during the pandemic while keeping person-to-person contact to a minimum. In an early beta test of sorts, the autonomous robot delivered an Easter egg in Brazil, at Shopping Iguatemi in Ribeirão Preto, in the interior of the State of São Paulo.

"As we like to say, the last mile is always the hardest, and our delivery robots have proven to be adept at navigating highly-populated areas where driving can be a challenge. This could include densely populated urban areas, airports, universities, hotels and resorts, or corporate campuses," added Theodoro.

Synkar robots have already gained significant traction in Ireland and Canada with partnerships in cities like Oshawa and Innisfil. They are environmentally friendly and 100% electric. They can carry up to 30kg, with an autonomy of twelve working hours.

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About Synkar Autonomous
Synkar is a Canadian Startup, focused on robotics and autonomous vehicles.

In 2017, Matheus Theodoro and Evandro Barros joined forces with Lucas Assis to start their strategy and PHd level thinking for real-life automation. Their vision and technical acumen have been the driving forces behind the development of Synkar and moulding the company's mission: To bring robotics, AI, and innovation into everyday logistics.

Today, Synkar robots autonomously navigate using multi-camera vision. Their technology performs autonomous mapping, localization, and navigation with computer vision and statistical modelling techniques from images using several deep learning models executed in real-time in the vehicle.

About iFood
iFood, the leader in online food delivery in Latin America, has 60 million monthly orders. For nine years in the market, the company of Brazilian origin is also present in Colombia. It works alongside partners with initiatives that bring together business intelligence and management solutions for the approximately 170,000 restaurants registered in more than 1,000 cities throughout Brazil. iFood counts major investors such as Movile - a global leader in mobile marketplaces - and Just Eat - one of the world's largest online ordering companies.