• StreetDrone's autonomous delivery vehicles will bring reduced costs to retailers and consumers
• StreetDrone has been developing its proprietary technology since 2017, with customers across Europe, Asia and Australasia
• wilko’s investment will accelerate the development and deployment of StreetDrone’s Pix-E delivery vehicle and autonomous delivery system

14 September 2021. High street retailer wilko has today announced a major investment in the UK’s leading autonomous delivery company, StreetDrone.

The £3 million investment will give the retailer a significant interest in the company, putting it at the forefront of investments in retail technology in the fast-growing autonomous vehicles industry.

The investment, which is part of a wider multi-million-pound pre-series A round, will enable StreetDrone to accelerate the development of its autonomous delivery vehicle and systems

StreetDrone’s Pix-E autonomous delivery vehicle, a small, light and quiet electric vehicle securely and safely making kerbside deliveries to customers’ homes

The investment forms a core element of wilko’s long-term strategy to strengthen its omnichannel model, in line with the ever-changing customer behaviours that have been accelerated during the pandemic.

wilko’s ambition is to ultimately provide customers with access to new digitally-enabled services, including autonomous retail deliveries, that will enhance their experience and make it easier for them to access the products they need for homes and gardens.

StreetDrone is aiming to deploy driverless delivery vehicles on the UK’s roads by the end of 2023 and is working with UK-based vehicle safety agencies on defining the standards by which these technologies will be allowed to operate on public roads.

As part of the investment, Jonathan Griffin, Director of WilkinsonFuture, will sit on the firm’s Board, and oversee the investment on behalf of wilko.

Jerome Saint-Marc, CEO of wilko said, “Autonomous vehicles are the future of automated logistics, and StreetDrone is undoubtedly one of the key players that will lead the way in making this technology viable. It has gone from strength to strength over the last four years and is one of the companies that’s putting the UK on the map in developing this type of game-changing technology.

“One of the key reasons why we’re backing the team at StreetDrone is that this sort of transformative technology can have a huge and positive impact for hard-working families – and it’s this ethos that runs through all of our work at wilko. Ultimately, it has the potential to reduce costs for customers when deployed in the retail sector. We look forward to supporting them on this journey.”

Mike Potts, Founder and CEO of StreetDrone said, “We are delighted to have the support of a major UK retailer. wilko will help us realise our aim of bringing autonomous last-mile services to UK and European roads, to the benefit of both retailers and consumers. Our technology, aligned with wilko’s determined strategy to enrich the lives of its customers, is the perfect fusion of our capability and their requirement.”

Jonathan Griffin, Director of WilkinsonFuture said, “We were very excited when we met StreetDrone and would have happily added them directly to our portfolio of young businesses. However, it is even better that wilko shared that view and I look forward to supporting them and seeing both businesses, one new and one over 90 years young, flourishing together.”

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About wilko

• Founded in 1930, wilko is a UK-based retail chain that sells homewares and household goods 
• It is one of the most well-known retail brands in the country with over 400 stores nationwide and a turnover over £1.2bn in 2021
• wilko stocks over 200,000 products in its stores and on its e-commerce site – wilko.com – with over 14,000 of them being wilko branded
• Its ethos and mission is to support hard-working families by providing them with a one-stop-shop to help them with their home and garden needs

About WilkinsonFuture

• WilkinsonFuture invests heavily in innovative, cutting-edge sectors; over the last six months, WilkinsonFuture has grown its investment portfolio with companies in robotics, consumer technology, and engineering
• Jonathan Griffin is Director of WilkinsonFuture. He sources and evaluates its investments and supports portfolio companies

About StreetDrone

• Oxford-based StreetDrone develops autonomous technologies focussed on meeting the autonomous last-mile challenge
• The company also supports a network of customers with autonomous R&D products through its StreetDrone Labs brand. StreetDrone Labs has a global spread of customers and reseller agreements from Asia and Australasia to Europe and the Middle East, offering a range of ready-to-go driverless vehicles, self-driving software stacks and services such as fleet teleoperation
• The company is noted for its pioneering work in early-stage public road trials and for its leadership of Project ASLAN, the global open-source collaboration in autonomous software