Rollo Motion

Tech-driven delivery platform with autonomous and hybrid operationRollo achieves one of the lowest costs in the market for fulfillment of local deliveries by using a fleet of light-weight vehicles that can be operated in a variety of modes. Our custom-designed vehicles can be ridden by a delivery driver, operated remotely, or they can even complete deliveries fully autonomously.The ProblemTraditional car-based delivery providers are fundamentally limited by labor costs, and increasingly face regulatory headwinds as the nascent 'gig-economy' grows around the world. Others who use fully-robotic solutions face a wide range of technical challenges including range at low-speeds, maneuverability, and navigating complex situations beyond the capabilities of today's technology (e.g. entering a door code, or opening a gate). Rollo's unique hybrid fleet allocates staff as needed in an efficient manner while enjoying the benefits of lower-cost autonomy on deliveries that don't require a person at the endpoint. As a result, our overall operational costs are lower than others in the local delivery space, which allows us to provide greater value to our restaurant partners and customers alike.Rollo vehiclesToday, Rollo's delivery fleet is made up of a single vehicle design that is optimized for in-person (human-ridden) usage, and is also capable of low-speed remote operation and fully-autonomous motion. Rollo is now adapting the core of our vehicle to create a configuration optimized for autonomous motion which increases its operational speed, safety, and range.

Achieved in-market growth by increasing deliveries 48% on average per month (September 2020 to March 2021) since launching in Pasadena, CA in July 2020.
Vehicles have logged over 8,600 miles of in-market use and our autonomy projects to provide triple the deliveries per hour per person versus traditional human-delivery.
Vehicles have delivered over 5,000 orders since launching, with an average gross order value of over $62.
An Idealab company co-founded by Bill Gross and Ryan McLean, Ph.D., with deep experience scaling startups and profitably bringing advanced technology to market.
Key investors include Idealab Studio, Idealab X, Neotribe, and Ubiquity Ventures.

• Research and Development
• Sales and Marketing
• Vehicles
• Operations

Ryan McLean, PhD, Co-Founder & CEO
Ryan co-founded Rollo in 2018 to bring the promise of autonomy to the world of micromobility. The challenge is particularly compelling for Ryan as it draws from his two main career strengths: technology and operations. As CEO, Ryan leads the vision for the integration of a hardware design with Rollo software technology that will create a world-class autonomous delivery service.Ryan earned his Ph.D. in Astrophysics and came to Caltech in 2000 to continue to develop high-energy detectors for NASA spaceflight programs. His expertise contributed to space research missions that explored the origins of galaxies, star formation and black holes. Ryan was the first principal investigator at Caltech funded by the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, and was sponsored across multiple successful programs to adapt gamma-ray detectors to power systems capable of detecting stray radioactive materials. In 2009, Ryan went to the Stanford Graduate School of Business as a Sloan Fellow to learn to build organizations capable of scale and change. Ryan joined Razor USA as COO and negotiated acquisition of the Hovertrax intellectual property, adding the highest tech product ever made to the Razor product line.Ryan received his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2000, a Master’s in Business Management from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2010, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1992.

Bill Gross, Co-Founder and Board Chairman
In 1996, Bill founded Idealab  a company “incubator”.  The company’s mission is to challenge the status quo, to be bold, and to tackle big ideas that others would not. Idealab just celebrated its 25th anniversary, and during its more than two decades, it has started more than 150 companies, created more than 10,000 jobs, and had more than 50 successful IPOs and acquisitions. In addition to serving as Idealab’s board chairman, Bill is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology and of the Art Center College of Design. He graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a BS degree in mechanical engineering in 1981.