Welcome to Tech in Asia’s daily newsletter, your essential dose of Asia’s tech and startup buzz. Not yet a subscriber? Register here. Got a story tip? Send it to editors@techinasia.com.
In focus
- Inside the robot army powering office deliveries in Singapore
- India’s push for biometric payments mirrors Vietnam’s 2024 rollout
- OpenAI rival Anthropic to open India office in 2026
Hello reader,
In 2021, robotics company Otsaw piloted the use of autonomous robots to deliver groceries from supermarket chain FairPrice to residential blocks in Singapore.
While the idea held promise, it failed to expand beyond the trial. Regulations requiring a human chaperone for robots negated any potential cost savings.
Otsaw later pivoted into healthcare, where it found more success. Today, its robots are found in Singapore’s public hospitals, including KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
Now, another autonomous robotics firm handling deliveries has emerged in the market. QuikBot aims to tackle the last-mile delivery process of going through lifts and bringing parcels to customers’ doors.
QuikBot founder and CEO Alan Ng is candid when he shares that there’s no “incredible tech” behind its fleet of robots. The company uses IoT, 5G, and robotic machine learning features, none of which are groundbreaking on their own.
But in robotics, implementation goes beyond fancy tech – it’s about finding a viable use case. It requires paying customers, sustainable volumes, willing backers, and a scalable business model.
At pre-revenue, QuikBot is early in the game. To grow, it’ll need to check off all those boxes.
Melissa Goh, senior editor
Top Story
Lifts to lobbies: robots tackling the last-mile delivery hurdle
(left to right) QuikCats, QuikBoxes (smart lockers), and QuikFoxes capable of carrying 3 QuikBoxes and travelling short distances / Photo credit: QuikBot
Dive into how Singapore-based QuikBot is rethinking the most inefficient part of logistics: the last-mile pickup.
From our archives
Trending news
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
