College campuses continue to be a place where robot delivery is making huge advancements. Sodexo, in cooperation with Kiwibot, is rolling out robot delivery at three universities in the United States this fall.
Sodexo provides food service and facilities management at universities across the country. The company began testing robot delivery at the University of Denver in 2020. College campuses are the ideal place for robot delivery. They have limited vehicle traffic and a large number of people in a confined space.
Sodexo is expanding the project to the New Mexico State University, Loyola Marymount University in California and Gonzaga University in Washington state. At the universities, college students will be able to use their meal plans to take advantage of robot delivery through Sodexo’s delivery app Bite+.
Robot delivery costs $2 plus a 10% fee.
“We are excited to grow our robot food delivery service with Kiwibot and provide customers with a safe, convenient, contactless and innovative solution, said Aurelia Valot, VP of digital transformation and innovation at Sodexo. “We are looking forward to expanding this offering in the coming months.”
Kiwibot has roots within the university system. The company was started at the Skydeck business incubator at the University of California at Berkley. The first prototype was rolled out in 2017 on the campus and delivery later expanded to Sanford University. The company says it has made 150,000 food deliveries with 400 robots and has expanded delivery beyond college campuses.
Our success comes from incredible customers like Sodexo who are willing to change the status quo,
Kiwibot co-founder Felipe Chávez Cortés said. This is just the beginning of our offerings to college students to test out the latest in robotic food delivery and provide universities across the US with the future of smart campuses.
Kiwibot and Sodexo envision a subscription program where every person in a Sodexo-serviced location can access any goods that can fit into a robot and are located within a university campus.
