(Sponsored Content) -- On-demand robotic delivery is set to be a reality for Los Angeles Uber Eats customers early next year, as Uber Technologies Inc. partners with leading autonomous sidewalk delivery company, Serve Robotics. 

Early last week, Serve Robotics announced the closing of a $13 million expanded seed funding round, with participation from strategic investors to help accelerate the company's path to commercial scale by building more robots to expand into new geographic areas.

"We are excited to partner with Serve Robotics to test a new kind of delivery in Los Angeles that's safe, reliable and environmentally friendly," Sarfraz Maredia, VP and head of Uber Eats in the US & Canada, said in a recent press release. "We're always looking for ways to better serve merchants and consumers, which is why we're working with the team at Serve to explore the potential of this technology."

In a Dec. 6 report by TechCrunch, Serve Co-founder and CEO Ali Kashani said the current goal is to put robots in every major U.S. over the next two to three years. With this, he told TechCrunch the company is set to expand beyond Uber Eats and Postmates customers and to increase the number of neighborhoods they operate in throughout Los Angeles and other cities next year. 

Serve Robotics started in 2017 as a division of Postmates, though it has since developed into an independent company, according to a Dec. 6 release. In 2020, the company began offering commercial service, following success delivering to Los Angeles customers in multiple neighborhoods since 2018.

The new round of funding, which brought $13 million to Serve, extends previous seed funding and includes investments from Neo, Western Technology Investment, Scott Banister and others, the release states. 

Serve plans to use the funding to help accelerate its growth to a commercial scale which will include fleet expansion, geographical growth and product development.