Warehouse automation and robotics including autonomous fulfillment, micro-fulfillment and store-attached automation, last-mile delivery and orchestration including autonomous delivery, supply-chain visibility, planning and orchestration software including provenance and traceability, freight and cross-border trade technology, reverse logistics and circular supply chain, and cold chain logistics.
The global cold chain logistics market, valued at approximately $436.3 billion in 2025, is projected to exceed $1.3 trillion by 2034 due to demand for ultracold storage of biologics and cell therapies.
Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group, acquired Locus, a logistics orchestration platform, to serve as the decision-intelligent layer for its global supply chain operations.
Project44 launched an AI agent in its Intelligent TMS that automates carrier selection and negotiation, reducing freight spend by 4.1% and accelerating sourcing cycles by 75%.
Zalando and CEVA Logistics have launched AI-powered robotic systems at facilities in Germany and Poland to process returned fashion items without per-SKU training.
Starship Technologies and Uber Technologies announced a collaboration to deploy Level 4 autonomous sidewalk robot delivery starting in Leeds, UK in December 2025, with multiple European countries in 2026 and US expansion planned for 2027.
Freightos introduced Freightos Enterprise in April 2025, a platform combining freight procurement, booking, and market intelligence that early adopters report reduces freight spend by 20% and quote-related email traffic by 80%.
Walmart has agreed to pay $520 million for Symbotic's SymMicro robotic system, with a conditional commitment to install it at 400 Accelerated Pickup and Delivery locations starting in early 2027.
Amazon Robotics deployed its two-millionth autonomous mobile robot across its global fulfillment network in early 2025, establishing the largest AMR fleet in the industry.
Starship Technologies has completed over 8 million cumulative autonomous deliveries across more than 100 service areas in the US, UK, and EU.
Research published in early 2025 by the European Customs Authority found that blockchain usage reduced customs clearance time by 27% in EU cross-border trade.
Matternet introduced the M3 autonomous drone delivery system, a three-part platform enabling businesses to operate unmanned delivery micro-hubs on their rooftops within a 10-mile radius.
Large retail chains are deploying robotic micro-fulfillment centers to automate prescription processing and grocery order fulfillment, supporting same-day delivery and reducing operational costs.
Walmart and Wing have scaled their drone delivery partnership to 100 stores across five states, completing over 150,000 deliveries since 2021 with beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights up to 6 miles.
DHL has automated 95% of its global warehouses using approximately 10,000 automation projects, including autonomous container-unloading robots and over 2,500 item-picking robotic arms.
Starship, Zipline, Serve Robotics, and DoorDash have collectively deployed thousands of autonomous robots and drones for commercial deliveries in over 150 locations.
ARC Advisory Group released a new MarketMap evaluating suppliers of autonomous mobile robots in warehousing, focusing on software intelligence and fleet orchestration as hardware differentiation declines.
The Mobile Robot Company’s J1600 dual-mode pallet jack won the 2026 IFOY Award for bringing practical, human-in-the-loop automation to global supply chains.
Dual-arm robotic systems powered by Sereact's Cortex platform have entered live operations to autonomously sort returned fashion items at CEVA Logistics facilities in Germany and Poland.
GNC deployed Corvus One autonomous drones in its warehouses, achieving 99.9% inventory accuracy and reallocating labor from cycle counting to higher-value tasks while reducing cold-storage exposure.
Happy Returns has introduced Return Vision, an AI-driven tool that combines artificial intelligence with physical verification to address returns fraud ahead of the estimated $850 million in post-Christmas 2025 returns.
Shopify integrated Deliverr into its platform in 2025 to provide merchants with elastic warehouse capacity for more flexible and lower-cost fulfillment.
Agility Robotics' bipedal humanoid robot, Digit, has moved more than 100,000 totes in a live commercial GXO Logistics facility and is scheduled for deployment at Mercado Libre sites in San Antonio.
Supply-chain AI provider Loop has raised a $95M Series C to expand its platform across supplier, trade, compliance, warehouse, procurement, and inbound-logistics data.
Fabric, a robotic micro-fulfillment startup, opened fulfillment centers in Brooklyn and Long Island City to provide 1-2 hour delivery services to non-grocery clients.
Amazon Logistics is operating 100,000 Rivian electric delivery vehicles alongside renewable-energy-powered fulfillment centers as part of its net-zero logistics initiative.
Amazon and DHL Supply Chain have moved autonomous mobile robots from pilot programs to production-scale deployment, with Amazon unveiling next-generation hardware for fragile item handling and European expansion.
Coco Robotics has expanded its commercial last-mile delivery operations by scaling partnerships with Uber Eats and DoorDash to deploy remotely piloted sidewalk robots for food and grocery delivery in five major US cities.
Uber announced a September 2025 partnership with Flytrex to pilot drone deliveries for Uber Eats, leveraging Flytrex's 200,000+ completed US deliveries to build an end-to-end delivery experience.
Amazon deployed its one-millionth robot across 300+ facilities in 2025, while Locus Robotics introduced Locus Array, a fully autonomous system designed to reduce manual labor by up to 90%.
Aurora began operating a fully driverless Class 8 trucking service on public roads between Dallas and Houston in May 2025.
Flexport has acquired Shopify's logistics and fulfillment operations, integrating warehousing and e-commerce distribution into its freight-forwarding business.
Freehand closed a $75M Series B to scale autonomous AI agents that manage supply-chain spend, freight audits, and vendor negotiations for major enterprise clients.
Lyric secured a $43.5M Series B led by Insight Partners to expand its AI-driven supply chain decision-making platform, which has achieved 500% revenue growth and a deployment with Mondelēz International.
OneRail, a last-mile delivery software platform, raised a $42M Series C in November 2024, bringing its total funding to approximately $109M and projecting profitability for 2025.
DHL Supply Chain acquired Inmar Supply Chain Solutions in January 2025 to expand its reverse logistics capabilities for retail e-commerce returns.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced a Circular Supply Chains Accelerator providing up to $12.5 million to commercialize circularity technologies for critical materials, with concept papers due in March 2025.
The autonomous-delivery vehicle company spun out of Rivian in March 2025 signed a second major logistics deal with DoorDash and closed a ~$200M Series C led by Greenoaks, bringing total funding to ~$505M.
Major grocery retailers have launched automated micro-fulfillment centers inside physical stores to support same-day delivery operations.
Venture capital investment in logistics fell nearly 90% between 2022 and 2023 from its 2021 peak of $25.6 billion, with software and last-mile segments remaining relatively attractive to investors.
Only 10 new last-mile delivery startups were founded in 2026, compared to a historical average of approximately 21 per year.
Corporate venture arms have become the dominant investors in last-mile delivery, with top firms in the category having cumulatively deployed over $21.6 billion.
Ahold Delhaize is testing a modular micro-fulfillment center in a Philadelphia GIANT store that uses Swisslog SynQ software and AutoStore robotics to process over 15,000 weekly online orders from in-store space.
Gartner has established real-time transportation visibility as a formal market category, defining the segment by capabilities such as geofencing, multimodal tracking, and automated notifications.
Capital in the micro-fulfillment sector is flowing to established companies, with Fabric raising $336 million for its Series C round.
Walmart entered a $520 million program with Symbotic in February 2025 to build an automated delivery system for its stores.
Project44 has acquired LunaPath.ai to integrate advanced artificial intelligence capabilities for detecting and resolving transportation disruptions across its global shipment network.
Loop Returns has secured a $65M Series B investment to scale its artificial intelligence platform for managing e-commerce returns and launched a pre-purchase cost-hedging product called Offset.
The supply-chain visibility sector has matured into a consolidated market with 613 tracked startups, led by Project44 and FourKites competing on predictive analytics and SKU-level tracking.
Walgreens operates 11 robotic micro-fulfillment centers that automate 40% of its prescription volume, reducing cost per fill by 13–14% and enabling rapid same-day delivery.
Venture capital investment in last-mile delivery has declined from its 2021 peak, with major funds now prioritizing Series A–C companies that demonstrate delivery costs below two dollars per mile.
Venture capital investment in last-mile delivery has declined to less than 20% of its 2021 peak, with capital shifting toward specialized providers and software-enabled logistics.
