Serve Robotics to Acquire Diligent Robotics, Expanding Physical AI Platform Beyond the Sidewalk

Rhea-AI Summary

Serve Robotics (Nasdaq: SERV) agreed to acquire Diligent Robotics to expand its Physical AI autonomy platform from sidewalks into indoor healthcare environments. The transaction consideration is $29.0 million in common stock, subject to net debt and adjustments, plus a potential earn-out of up to $5.3 million. Diligent’s Moxi fleet has completed over 1.25 million autonomous deliveries with nearly 100 robots deployed across more than 25 hospitals. Each hospital deployment is expected to generate $200k–$400k in annual sales. The deal is expected to close in Q1 2026 and is subject to customary closing conditions and Nasdaq listing approval.

Positive

• Acquisition consideration of $29.0M in stock
• Potential earn-out up to $5.3M
• Moxi completed > 1.25M autonomous deliveries
• Nearly 100 robots deployed in > 25 hospitals
• Per-hospital revenue potential of $200k–$400k annually
• Extends Serve into indoor healthcare autonomy

Negative

• Deal paid in common stock may cause shareholder dilution
• Transaction subject to customary closing conditions and Nasdaq approval
• Diligent options and warrants cancelled for no consideration

News Market Reaction

-9.94%

30 alerts

-9.94% News Effect

+3.8% Peak Tracked

-5.2% Trough Tracked

-$122M Valuation Impact

$1.10B Market Cap

1.1x Rel. Volume

On the day this news was published, SERV declined 9.94%, reflecting a notable negative market reaction. Argus tracked a peak move of +3.8% during that session. Argus tracked a trough of -5.2% from its starting point during tracking. Our momentum scanner triggered 30 alerts that day, indicating elevated trading interest and price volatility. This price movement removed approximately $122M from the company's valuation, bringing the market cap to $1.10B at that time.

Data tracked by StockTitan Argus on the day of publication.

Key Figures

Equity consideration: $29.0 million Earn-out potential: $5.3 million Diligent financing raised: Over $100 million +5 more

8 metrics

Equity consideration $29.0 million Common stock value to be paid to Diligent shareholders

Earn-out potential $5.3 million Contingent on achievement of specified milestones

Diligent financing raised Over $100 million Capital raised by Diligent Robotics since inception

Moxi deliveries Over 1.25 million Autonomous hospital deliveries completed by Moxi robots

Deployed robots Nearly 100 robots Moxi units deployed across hospital facilities

Hospital facilities Over 25 facilities U.S. hospitals using Moxi robots

Annual sales per hospital $200k to $400k Expected annual sales per hospital deploying Moxi robots

Diligent founding year 2017 Year Diligent Robotics was founded

Market Reality Check

Price: $13.25 Vol: Volume 8,536,500 is sligh...

normal vol

$13.25 Last Close

Volume Volume 8,536,500 is slightly above the 7,773,909 share 20-day average. normal

Technical Trading above the 200-day MA of 10.82 and about 42% below the 23.10 52-week high.

Peers on Argus

SERV gained 1.75% while peers were mixed: RR +4.89%, THR +2.52%, NNE +0.68%, and...

SERV gained 1.75% while peers were mixed: RR +4.89%, THR +2.52%, NNE +0.68%, and KRNT/GHM down. No broad sector follow-through or scanner momentum flagged.

Historical Context

5 past events · Latest: Dec 12 (Positive)

Pattern 5 events

Date	Event	Sentiment	Move	Catalyst
Dec 12	Fleet expansion milestone	Positive	-5.6%	Announced 2,000 autonomous delivery robots, largest U.S. sidewalk fleet.
Dec 10	Geographic expansion	Positive	-7.3%	Launched autonomous delivery service in Alexandria, Virginia with Uber Eats.
Dec 05	Market expansion	Positive	+3.8%	Expanded autonomous deliveries into Fort Lauderdale via Uber Eats partnership.
Nov 12	Earnings report	Positive	+1.4%	Reported Q3 2025 revenue growth, larger fleet, and strong liquidity position.
Oct 15	Earnings scheduling	Neutral	+6.4%	Announced date and webcast details for upcoming Q3 2025 results.

Pattern Detected

Recent history shows mixed reactions to positive operational news, with some expansion milestones followed by selloffs and others by modest gains.

Recent Company History

Over the last few months, SERV reported rapid scaling and commercialization of its sidewalk delivery robots. On Nov 12, 2025, Q3 results highlighted $687k revenue, strong growth, and liquidity of $210M, with a 1.36% gain. Subsequent expansion headlines into Fort Lauderdale, Alexandria, and a 2,000‑robot fleet produced both positive and negative moves, including a -7.28% reaction on Dec 10, 2025. Today’s acquisition of Diligent extends that growth story from sidewalks into hospitals and indoor autonomy.

Market Pulse Summary

The stock moved -9.9% in the session following this news. A negative reaction despite the expansion ...

Analysis

The stock moved -9.9% in the session following this news. A negative reaction despite the expansion into hospital robotics would fit SERV’s history of occasional selloffs on positive news, such as the fleet milestone followed by a -5.6% move. The deal structure, including $29.0 million in stock and up to $5.3 million in earn-outs, adds integration and execution risk. With shares trading below the 23.10 52-week high but above the 10.82 200-day MA, any sharp pullback could reflect concerns about dilution of focus and post-rally profit-taking.

Key Terms

autonomy stack, embedded hardware, earn-out, warrants

4 terms

autonomy stack technical

"Every foot traveled by Moxi and every interaction navigated will feed back into a shared autonomy stack"

An autonomy stack is the complete set of hardware and software components that let a machine — such as a car, drone, or factory robot — perceive its surroundings, make decisions, and act without human control. Think of it as the vehicle’s nervous system and brain: sensors gather data, processors interpret it, and control software drives actions. Investors watch the stack because its quality determines safety, scalability, cost, and how easily a company can turn autonomy into reliable, sellable products.

embedded hardware technical

"Moxi is powered by NVIDIA’s embedded hardware and software ecosystem"

Embedded hardware are the physical electronic parts—microchips, circuit boards, sensors and controllers—built into machines and devices to perform a single, dedicated task rather than run general-purpose software. For investors, it matters because these components determine a product’s cost, reliability, performance and supply-chain risk; like the engine in a car, better embedded hardware can create competitive advantage, recurring revenue from upgrades, and exposure to manufacturing or regulatory issues.

earn-out financial

"including a potential earn-out of up to $5.3 million upon the achievement of specified milestones"

An earn-out is a deal feature in mergers and acquisitions where part of the purchase price is paid later only if the acquired business meets specific future targets, such as revenue or profit goals. It matters to investors because it shares risk between buyer and seller—similar to paying for a used car only if it reaches promised mileage—affecting projected cash flows, valuation assumptions, and the likelihood of future payouts.

warrants financial

"At the closing of the transaction, all Diligent Options and Diligent Warrants will be cancelled for no consideration"

Warrants are special documents that give you the right to buy a company's stock at a set price before a certain date. They are often used as a way for companies to attract investors or raise money, and their value can increase if the company's stock price goes up.

AI-generated analysis. Not financial advice.

• Acquisition broadens Serve’s autonomous robotics platform, expanding market opportunity beyond last-mile delivery, and delivering non-organic revenue 
• Diligent’s Moxi robot among the largest autonomous robot deployments in hospitals nationwide: Over 1.25 million deliveries completed by nearly 100 robots in over 25 hospital facilities, with annual sales at each hospital expected to range between $200k to $400k
• Leverages a common autonomy and AI stack, accelerating learning, deployment, and scalability
  
  

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 20, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Serve Robotics Inc. (Nasdaq: SERV) (“Serve” or “the Company”), a leading autonomous robotics company, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Diligent Robotics, Inc. (“Diligent”), a pioneering provider of AI-powered robot assistants for the healthcare industry. The transaction marks the first expansion of Serve’s autonomy platform into indoor environments, with hospitals as one of the most high-impact settings for robotics.

Diligent was founded in 2017 by Andrea Thomaz and Vivian Chu, world-renowned social roboticists, with the vision of creating socially intelligent robot assistants that improve human labor productivity. Since its inception, Diligent has raised over $100 million in financing from investors including Tiger Global, Canaan, and True Ventures.

Diligent has developed Moxi, an autonomous hospital delivery robot that supports nurses and hospital staff, allowing them to focus on time with patients and therefore improve quality of care. Moxi is deployed in over 25 hospital facilities across the U.S., representing one of the largest commercial deployments of mobile manipulation robots working alongside people. Moxi robots have successfully completed over 1.25 million autonomous deliveries. Moxi is powered by NVIDIA’s embedded hardware and software ecosystem (Jetson & Omniverse) and uses advanced sensing and AI to navigate among people in complex hospital spaces. Moxi incorporates insight from years of real-world data in commercial deployments. Customers include leading hospitals and healthcare systems such as Northwestern Medicine, ChristianaCare, and Rochester General Hospital.

The acquisition extends Serve’s commercial operations and autonomy platform into indoor and healthcare applications that demand reliability, safety, and an unobtrusive presence. The combined effort brings together two mission-driven teams with a shared vision for creating and deploying human-centric, autonomous robots in real-world settings. Both Serve and Diligent have successfully designed and commercialized Physical AI systems that operate safely alongside people, perform with high reliability in complex, dynamic environments, and integrate seamlessly into everyday situations.

Indoor environments, such as hospitals, add a powerful new dimension to Serve’s Physical AI flywheel. Dense, human-centric, multi-level spaces with constant edge cases are the conditions that sharpen autonomy fastest. Every foot traveled by Moxi and every interaction navigated will feed back into a shared autonomy stack, which strengthens AI models across all applications.

The combination of Serve and Diligent is expected to:

• Further improve and scale the deployment of Moxi hospital robots, bringing service robots to support more clinicians across the country
• Accelerate Serve’s AI and autonomy flywheel, as every robot learns from every robot, compressing deployment timelines and expanding where our platform can operate next
• Validate healthcare use cases that deliver high revenue per robot and improved blended fleet economics for Serve.
• Accelerate the adoption of Serve’s autonomy platform, and extend its reach across industries where indoor navigation and manipulation is required to accomplish tasks in dense environments, such as opening doors or operating elevators
• Drive long-term efficiency across Serve and Moxi use cases, through shared supply chain, technology infrastructure, and operational excellence
• Deliver revenue growth, with each hospital facility deploying Moxi robots expected to range between $200k to $400k in annual sales

“This acquisition accelerates Serve’s evolution from a robotic delivery company into a full-stack autonomy platform,” said Dr. Ali Kashani, CEO of Serve Robotics. “We’ve proven we can deploy robots safely and reliably at scale in complex urban environments. By extending our platform beyond sidewalks and into hospitals, we’re expanding where our Physical AI can operate, learn, and create value. Over time, Serve and Moxi will share one autonomy stack, one data flywheel, and one operating system for robots that work alongside people across city sidewalks and critical institutions. This is how autonomy becomes infrastructure.”

“We are excited to partner with a team that is at the forefront of autonomous robotics and motivated by a shared mission to make robots an integral part of our day-to-day lives,” Kashani continued.

Diligent Robotics will continue its operations as a subsidiary of Serve under the leadership of Andrea Thomaz.

“Diligent was founded to help healthcare teams do more with their limited resources,” said Andrea Thomaz, CEO of Diligent Robotics. “By joining Serve, we can build on the autonomy and AI we’ve deployed across live hospital fleets and scale it faster, enabling more intelligent, capable robots in care environments. Together, we’re unlocking the next phase of practical, real-world robotics and advancing a people-plus-robots model that prioritizes human impact.”

Transaction Overview
Pursuant to the merger agreement, the aggregate transaction will consist of shares of the Company’s common stock with a value of $29.0 million paid to Diligent shareholders, subject to net debt and other adjustments, including a potential earn-out of up to $5.3 million upon the achievement of specified milestones. At the closing of the transaction, all Diligent Options and Diligent Warrants will be cancelled for no consideration. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026. The merger agreement contains customary representations, warranties, covenants, and indemnification obligations of the parties thereto. The parties to the merger agreement also agreed to various customary covenants and agreements, including, among others, for Diligent to conduct, subject to certain exceptions, its business in the ordinary course consistent with past practice during the period between the execution of the merger agreement and the closing of the transactions contemplated by the merger agreement.

The completion of the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including, among other things, the absence of any governmental law or order that makes the transaction illegal or otherwise prohibits or prevents its consummation; the accuracy of the representations and warranties made by the parties to the merger agreement (generally subject to customary materiality thresholds); the absence of a material adverse effect with respect to either the Company or Diligent; and the authorization for listing of the common stock to be issued pursuant to the merger agreement on Nasdaq.

To learn more about Serve Robotics, visit www.serverobotics.com.

About Diligent Robotics
Founded in 2017, Diligent Robotics is an Austin-based AI company that creates socially-intelligent, AI-native mobile manipulation robots to drive workflow efficiency. Diligent's first robot assistant, Moxi, operates in over 25 hospital facilities across the U.S. to help clinicians with routine tasks (such as delivering meds and lab samples) to free them up for patient care and prevent burnout. Moxi has already saved hospital staff hundreds of thousands of hours by completing over 1.25 million tasks successfully.

Founded by social robotics experts Andrea Thomaz and Vivian Chu, Diligent Robotics is proud to be at the forefront of creating robots that incorporate mobile manipulation, social intelligence and human-guided learning capabilities. For further information, visit www.diligentrobots.com.

About Serve Robotics
Serve Robotics develops advanced, AI-powered, low-emissions sidewalk delivery robots that endeavor to make delivery sustainable and economical. Spun off from Uber in 2021 as an independent company, Serve has completed well over 100,000 deliveries for enterprise partners such as Uber Eats and 7-Eleven. Serve has scalable multi-year contracts, including a signed agreement to deploy up to 2,000 delivery robots across multiple U.S. markets.

For further information about Serve Robotics (Nasdaq:SERV), visit www.serverobotics.com or follow us on social media via X (Twitter), Instagram, or LinkedIn @serverobotics.

Safe Harbor Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Serve intends such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements can be about future events, including statements regarding Serve's intentions, objectives, plans, expectations, assumptions and beliefs about future events, including Serve's expectations with respect to the financial and operating performance of its business (including potential revenue as the result of sales of Diligent’s Moxi robots), its capital position, and future growth, the closing of the transaction between Serve and Diligent, and any potential benefits of the transaction between Serve and Diligent. The words "anticipate", "believe", "expect", "project", "predict", "will", "forecast", "estimate", "likely", "intend", "outlook", "should", "could", "may", "target", "plan", “on track” and other similar expressions can generally be used to identify forward-looking statements. Indications of, and guidance or outlook on, future earnings or financial position or performance are also forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements in this press release are based on management's current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Risks that contribute to the uncertain nature of the forward-looking statements include those risks and uncertainties set forth in Serve's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and in its subsequent filings filed with the SEC. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date on which they were made. Serve undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.

Contacts
Media
Aduke Thelwell, Head of Communications & Investor Relations
Serve Robotics
press@serverobotics.com

Investor Relations
investor.relations@serverobotics.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e6dfe9d2-e68f-4d58-814e-57c007aa59d9

 A video accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bae8e14a-6449-463d-a00f-c37e153e2ffe

FAQ

What is Serve Robotics (SERV) acquiring from Diligent Robotics on January 20, 2026?

Serve will acquire Diligent Robotics in a stock-based transaction valued at $29.0 million plus an earn-out of up to $5.3 million.

How many deliveries and robots has Diligent’s Moxi completed before the acquisition?

Moxi robots have completed over 1.25 million autonomous deliveries with nearly 100 robots deployed across more than 25 hospitals.

When is the Serve–Diligent transaction expected to close and what approvals are required?

The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2026 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including Nasdaq listing authorization for issued shares.

What revenue impact does Serve expect from each hospital deploying Moxi robots?

Each hospital facility deploying Moxi robots is expected to generate approximately $200k to $400k in annual sales.

How does the acquisition change Serve’s autonomy platform strategy (SERV)?

The acquisition extends Serve’s autonomy stack into indoor, human-centric environments, accelerating learning, deployment, and shared AI across sidewalk and hospital robots.