Delivery Robot Company Buys Hospital Bot Maker for $29M

Serve Robotics, the company behind those sidewalk delivery robots you might see rolling through your neighborhood, just made a big bet on the future of helpful robots everywhere.

The California-based company announced it's buying Diligent Robotics for $29 million. Diligent makes Moxi, a friendly robot with an actual arm that delivers medical supplies in hospitals across the country.

This isn't just another tech acquisition. It's two companies that have actually proven their robots work in the real world joining forces to do even more.

Serve has deployed over 2,000 delivery robots on American sidewalks. Diligent's Moxi robots are already working in more than 25 hospitals, where they've completed over 1.25 million tasks like delivering medications and supplies to busy nurses.

"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," said Ali Kashani, Serve's CEO and co-founder. That practical approach is exactly what drew the two companies together.

The combination opens exciting new possibilities. Moxi can open doors, ride elevators, and navigate crowded hospital hallways. Serve's robots are experts at outdoor navigation. Together, they could create robots that move seamlessly from inside buildings to outside and back again.

Imagine a hospital robot that could pick up lab samples and deliver them to an outside facility, or a delivery robot that could bring packages right to your office door instead of just the lobby. That's the kind of flexibility this merger makes possible.

The Ripple Effect

The healthcare industry desperately needs help. Nurses and hospital staff are stretched thin, often walking miles each day just to fetch supplies. Every task Moxi handles frees up medical professionals to spend more time with patients who need them.

Now, with Serve's manufacturing and scaling experience, Diligent could rapidly expand its hospital presence. Just last year, Serve grew from 100 deployed robots to 2,000. They're ready to help Diligent do the same.

Andrea Thomaz, who co-founded and currently leads Diligent, will continue running the company with more resources behind her team. The deal is expected to close in early 2026.

For both companies, this is about building robots that genuinely help people in everyday situations, not just impressive demos. The merger brings together outdoor expertise, indoor navigation, and mobile manipulation into one platform that could serve countless industries from healthcare to hospitality to logistics.

The future where helpful robots are normal parts of our daily lives just got a lot closer.