By

Angelica Ang

Writer

December 18, 2025, 4:05 AM ET

A creation of Singapore-based AI logistics firm QuikBot Technologies, these robots automate last-mile delivery, allowing packages to be delivered right to one’s doorstep.COURTESY OF FEDEX SINGAPORE & QUIKBOT TECHNOLOGIES

In Singapore’s central business district, delivery robots now pound the pavements alongside smartly-clad businessmen. With two googly, animated eyes and lockers on their back, the robots navigate automatic doors, elevators and turnstiles, delivering packages right to an office’s front door.

These robots are the creation of Singapore-based AI logistics firm QuikBot Technologies. Alan Ng founded QuikBot in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Restaurants and eateries shuttered as people sheltered in place, yet e-commerce boomed in the pandemic years, causing the demand for delivery services to skyrocket.

Yet Ng observed that there weren’t enough people to get goods where they needed to go. “We simply don’t have enough manpower,” Ng said, particularly in wealthier economies like Singapore, Japan and Korea.

A crucial, yet costly, part of the process is last-mile delivery: Getting a package from a local distribution hub to someone’s home or office. “A driver can take ten minutes to park the car below your building and bring the parcel to you,” he says. “Even with all our tech, we’re still stuck at the last mile.”

QuikBot, for now, has just two delivery robots and a smart locker. Together, they form an ecosystem that automates last-mile delivery in urban environments. Goods are stored in smart lockers, which sit atop a long-distance autonomous robot called the “QuickFox.” Boxes are then transferred onto the QuikCat, a smaller delivery robot that can travel shorter distances to drop off goods at their final destination. Customers will get a text message with a one-time password, which they can use to open the box and collect their parcels.

But Ng says QuikBot isn’t really a robotics company. “We don’t just sell robots. Our job is to help automate buildings,” he explains. “We connect the robot with the building so it can move freely within the space, and then whatever the company wants the robot to do, we can program it to help them with it.”

QuikBot is part of a handful of startups exploring how to make robots work for last-mile delivery. U.S.-based Serve Robotics is developing small vehicles for food delivery, and has signed agreements with both Uber and DoorDash.

The future of delivery

In July, QuikBot announced a partnership with global courier FedEx to roll out autonomous final-mile delivery services in Singapore. The two companies previously ran a successful pilot in two business districts: South Beach Tower and Mapletree Business City.

AI-enabled robots can help delivery firms like FedEx reduce their fleet size and reduce carbon emissions, Ng says, claiming that QuikBot can lead to deliveries that are 30% faster with 20% less emissions.