Amazon acquires ETH Zurich start-up.
Keystone-SDA
Amazon has bought the Zurich-based start-up Rivr, which specialises in delivery robots. The spin-off from the Swiss federal technology institute ETH Zurich, formerly known as Swiss-Mile, was valued at around $110 million (CHF86 million) in 2024, according to press reports.
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
Rivr CEO Marko Bjelonic confirmed the acquisition in a post on LinkedIn but did not reveal any financial details.
Investors included Amazon as well as Jeff Bezos through his investment company, according to the tech publication The Information. Amazon was already an investor and was involved through its Industrial Innovation Fund.
Rivr builds autonomous delivery robots that support personnel by moving parcels nearby. They combine wheeled and four-legged mobility to climb stairs and navigate rough terrain.
More
Switzerland – where the robots of tomorrow are born
In Zurich, Rivr made headlines last year when tests with a delivery robot were temporarily halted after authorities classified the devices as road vehicles and demanded corresponding permits.
The Swiss Federal Roads Office subsequently granted Rivr a temporary exemption permit until the end of 2025, allowing pilot projects to resume. However, operations are restricted, as the robots may initially only be used remotely controlled and under human supervision.
More
More
Swiss Post tests use of robots for parcel delivery
Adapted from Italian by AI/sb
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch
