Serve Robotics Acquires Vayu Robotics for AI-Driven Navigation

Serve Robotics acquired Vayu Robotics, an AI-driven urban robot navigation company, in exchange for 1.7M shares of its common stock and a potential future earnout. The acquisition is expected to enhance Serve Robotics' autonomous delivery capabilities and expand its market presence in the urban robot navigation space.

Title: Serve Robotics Acquires Vayu Robotics to Bolster Autonomous Delivery Capabilities

Serve Robotics Inc. (Nasdaq: SERV), a leading autonomous sidewalk delivery company, has acquired Vayu Robotics Inc. (Vayu), a pioneer in urban robot navigation using large-scale AI models. The acquisition, completed on August 18, 2025, involves the issuance of 1,696,069 shares of Serve's common stock to Vayu stockholders, with an additional earnout of 560,000 shares contingent on achieving certain autonomy performance milestones. The transaction also includes warrants to purchase 4,000,000 shares of Serve's common stock [1].

The acquisition aims to accelerate Serve's roadmap and bring new capabilities enabled by Vayu's interpretable, foundation-model-driven robot navigation to Serve's third-generation robots. This combination is expected to enhance safety, reliability, and speed, further improving operational costs across Serve's growing fleet. The integration of Vayu's high-speed, photorealistic simulation engine with Serve's real-world dataset will enable scalable, diverse, and edge-case-rich AI training [1].

Vayu's multidisciplinary team of engineers and researchers, with decades of experience in advanced technologies, will join Serve. The company's founders, Anand Gopalan, Mahesh Krishnamurthi, and Nitish Srivastava, bring unique expertise in AI and machine learning, hardware systems, and large-scale production. Additionally, legendary Silicon Valley technologist and Vayu's lead investor, Vinod Khosla, will join Serve's Advisory Board to support its mission of bringing robots to cities across the world [1].

Serve Robotics' CEO and co-founder, Dr. Ali Kashani, stated, "This acquisition solidifies our leadership position in the robotics industry and aligns with our goal of deploying autonomous robots on sidewalks across the nation. We aim to bring delivery costs down to $1, and these new capabilities will help us move faster." Anand Gopalan, CEO of Vayu Robotics, expressed excitement about the collaboration, noting Serve's operational depth and focus on driving down cost per delivery through autonomy [1].

The acquisition follows Serve's strategic agreement with Ouster, Inc. to supply thousands of digital lidar sensors through 2025. This partnership will enable Serve's next-generation robots to navigate safely and efficiently on city sidewalks, using Ouster's OS1 digital lidar sensor to generate real-time 3D maps of their surroundings [2].

The transaction is expected to enhance Serve's balance sheet and ensure access to sufficient capital for future growth. As Serve continues to expand its market presence in the urban robot navigation space, this acquisition positions the company at the forefront of this paradigm shift in the robotics industry.

References
[1] https://www.morningstar.com/news/globe-newswire/9513853/serve-robotics-acquires-vayu-robotics-to-pioneer-ai-foundation-model-based-autonomy-for-last-mile-delivery
[2] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220120005327/en/Ouster-and-Serve-Robotics-Sign-Multi-Year-Strategic-Agreement-to-Support-Expansion-of-Autonomous-Delivery-Fleets