Lily Sarafan onboard with Serve Robotics as it expands market presence and shapes future of delivery and automation

Serve Robotics has added Lily Sarafan to its board of directors.

The company said in a LinkedIn post: "Lily brings nearly 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship, executive leadership and board governance.”

“As co-founder and former CEO of TheKey and a current board member at Instacart, Thumbtack, and Kyo, she has a proven track record of driving innovation and growth. Her insights and expertise will be invaluable as we continue to expand our market presence and shape the future of delivery and automation."

Drones and robots

Serve Robotics and Wing Aviation recently announced a pilot partnership.  

In the coming months, select Wing deliveries will be picked up by a Serve delivery robot from the restaurant's curbside and delivered to a Wing drone AutoLoader a few blocks away, for aerial delivery to customers as much as six miles away.

"We're excited to partner with Wing to offer a multi-modal delivery experience that expands our market from roughly half of all food deliveries that are within two miles of a restaurant, to offering 30 minute autonomous delivery across an entire city," said Dr. Ali Kashani, CEO and Co-founder at Serve Robotics.

"Together, Serve and Wing share an ambitious vision for reliable and affordable robotic delivery at scale. Our end-to-end robotic delivery solution will be the most efficient mode for the significant majority of deliveries."

"We have been delivering food and other goods directly to consumers for over five years, completing more than 400,000 commercial deliveries across three continents. We have a proven ability to make deliveries quickly and efficiently," said Adam Woodworth, CEO at Wing.

"Both Wing and Serve offer innovative solutions that are changing the way goods are delivered. Through this pilot partnership, Wing hopes to reach more merchants in highly congested areas while supporting Serve as it works to expand its delivery radius."

2024 RTIH INNOVATION AWARDS

Delivery experiences were a key focus area at the sixth edition of the RTIH Innovation Awards.

The awards, sponsored by Scala, CADS, 3D Cloud, Brightpearl by Sage’s Lightning 50, Business France, and Retail Technology Show 2025, celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Our 2024 hall of fame entrants were revealed during an event which took place at RIBA’s 66 Portland Place HQ in Central London on 21st November, and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by comedian Lucy Porter.

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “The event is now into its sixth year and what a journey it has been. The awards started life as an online only affair during the Covid outbreak, before launching as a small scale in real life event and growing year on year to the point where we’re now selling out this fine, historic venue.”

He added: “Congratulations to all of our finalists. Many submissions did not make it through to the final stage, and getting to this point is no mean feat. Checkout-free stores, automated supply chains, immersive experiences, on-demand delivery, next generation loyalty offerings, inclusive retail, green technology. We’ve got all the cool stuff covered this evening.”

“But just importantly we’ve got lots of great examples of companies taking innovative tech and making it usable in everyday operations - resulting in more efficiency and profitability in all areas.”

Congratulations to our 2024 winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Lucy Porter, and all those who attended last month’s gathering.