Amazon Acquires Zurich-based Autonomous Robotics Startup Rivr

Rivr’s co-founder and CEO, Marco Bielonić, who previously described the four-legged robot to TechCrunch as a “dog on roller skates,” announced the acquisition on his LinkedIn profile. The Information was first to report the deal.

RIVR was originally launched as Swiss-Mile in April 2023 by Dr. Marko Bjelonic, Dr. Lorenz Wellhausen, Dr. Giorgio Valsecchi, and Alexander Reske. The startup is a spin-off from ETH Zurich’s Robotic Systems Lab.

In January 2025, the company rebranded as Rivr, following a €19.8 million Seed funding round in 2024 led by Jeff Bezos via Bezos Expeditions and HongShan.

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Rivr recently unveiled RIVR TWO, its next-generation autonomous robot for doorstep delivery and large-scale AI data collection. Featuring a purpose-built payload system for unattended delivery, the robot completes deliveries by sitting down and releasing packages from the bottom, allowing parcels and food to be delivered efficiently without direct human handoff.

In August last year, Just Eat Takeaway.com partnered with Rivr to pilot food deliveries using its autonomous robots. This year, in February, the company expanded the collaboration by launching autonomous doorstep delivery in Milton Keynes, further integrating its technology with Just Eat Takeaway.com’s operations.

Marko Bjelonic, CEO and co-founder of RIVR, shared this news through his LinkedIn post. “This step will accelerate our vision of building General Physical AI through doorstep delivery, bringing robotics and AI closer to real-world deployment at scale,” he mentioned in his post.