Robotics startup RIVR has officially entered the U.S. market through a strategic partnership with Veho, a technology-driven parcel delivery company.
Launching in Austin, Texas, the two companies are piloting an original approach to ecommerce logistics. It uses legged-wheeled robots to deliver parcels the final few meters from a delivery vehicle directly to a customer’s doorstep.
This “last 100 yards” has long been one of the costliest and logistically difficult segments of the delivery chain. And that’s especially the case in dense urban and residential environments. While traditional logistics players have focused on streamlining transport and routing, few have successfully tackled the inefficiencies that occur once a delivery driver arrives at a neighborhood.
RIVR is a Zurich-based robotics company founded in 2022. It specializes in developing “physical AI” — advanced mobile robots designed to operate in real-world, unstructured environments. Unlike sidewalk bots or drones, RIVR’s robots combine wheels and legs for agility and stability. That enables them to traverse stairs, rough terrain, and obstacles common in residential settings. Their autonomous systems use onboard sensors and adaptive AI to make real-time navigation decisions. They say it eliminates the need for pre-mapped routes or remote operation.
“The robot is built to operate where people live — not just on sidewalks,” said Marko Bjelonic, CEO of RIVR. “It senses its surroundings, adapts to changing terrain, and can deliver directly to a doorstep, even in complex residential layouts.”
RIVR and Veho partner on delivery robots
By design, RIVR robots don’t replace human drivers; they assist them. When a Veho driver arrives at a delivery area, he or she can deploy a robot to carry parcels to individual doorsteps while the driver moves on to the next set of deliveries. This parallel approach improves delivery efficiency, reduces physical strain on drivers, and shortens delivery windows for customers.
Veho was founded in 2016 and is based in Denver, Colorado. It operates a tech-enabled last-mile delivery platform across more than 50 major U.S. metro areas. The company partners with ecommerce brands to provide fast, predictable, customer-focused parcel delivery using a network of contracted drivers and dynamic routing. Veho emphasizes real-time visibility, on-time performance, and customer feedback loops as core to its model.
“For us, this partnership is about enhancing—not replacing—the human touch in delivery,” said Itamar Zur, co-founder and CEO of Veho. “Customers care most about cost, reliability, and speed. This collaboration helps us explore how automation can raise the bar across all three, while also supporting the people who make the deliveries happen.”
The Austin pilot is a first step in what both companies hope will become a broader rollout across the U.S. later this year. RIVR has explicitly stated its goal to deploy one million delivery robots globally to support smarter, more scalable urban logistics systems.
“This isn’t automation for its own sake,” said Bjelonic. “It’s about building a delivery system that’s more efficient, more human-centered, and better suited to the reality of modern cities.”
Both companies believe that the future of e-commerce logistics lies in this type of hybrid model—where intelligent machines work in sync with people to meet growing delivery demands without sacrificing service quality.
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