Carrefour Deploys Pudu Robotics BellaBot at Poland Retail Stores

Pudu Robotics is celebrating the success of its partnership with supermarket retailer Carrefour, which recently deployed BellaBot units, Pudu’s smart delivery robot, at two of its retail stores in Warsaw, Poland.

The service shelf robot, also known as Kerfus, is being used to promote and deliver Pepsi products. Pudu noted customers have enjoyed interacting with the robot and have posted about their experiences with it on social media.

Memeing a robot

“Through the collaboration between Carrefour and Pepsi, Kerfuś has become a source of popular memes on social media, particularly on Twitter, where Kerfuś fans have been actively engaged in discussions on the bot's adorable design and smart delivery features,” the company said. “Such widespread social media responses and recognitions have successfully accelerated the product sales of PUDU's partners.”

BellaBot at Carrefour in Poland Source: Pudu Robotics

Shenzhen, China-based Pudu said it is organizing more than 100 “special fan meetups” at Carrefour stores across Poland to showcase the BellaBot in action.

“The deployment of PUDU smart delivery robots in Carrefour marks a step further in the Company's strategy to integrate technological innovation with the traditional retail industry,” it said. “The move also reflects PUDU's ambition to boost interactions between robots and shoppers to entertain consumers while they shop for groceries.”

The company said it has over 50 other business partners in Europe and has worked with oil refining conglomerate Shell to deploy robots at automated service stations in Poland. PUDU's robots are also used in the stores of electronics retailer Media Markt in Poland, McDonald's in Slovenia, Pizza Hut, and KFC in Poland.

"The popularity of BellaBot means that customers welcome innovation, and we are ramping up our effort to bring our smart delivery bots to more consumers in Europe," said Pudu Robotics founder and CEO Felix Zhang.

Earlier this year, the company started rolling out the PuduBot 2, its shelf-serving robot designed for industrial facilities, retail stores supermarkets and more. Last year, the service robotics company raised about $155 millon in Series C funding. To date, it has raised a total of $184 million, according to Crunchbase.