Alexander Khorokhorin
CEO
22 years in engineering and M&A. EFKO — commercialisation of autonomous systems. Kronwood — USD 800m+ of shipbuilding transactions. Wood Group — USD 300m of contracts. UEC × GE joint venture. Executive MBA, Kingston.
Project teaser · Seed · Confidential
DRT
Delivery Robot Technologies
An urban delivery robot that completes the delivery at the apartment door: built, licensed and operated in the UAE
Seed round: Tranche 1 of $14.8m for 19.4% · the result is the MVP
Technology partner — disclosed after NDA
October 2026
Concept rendering
The opportunity
A holding in a project with a detailed specification, a reconciled budget and a regulatory framework in force
$14.8mseed: Tranche 1 → MVP
19.4%investor holding after the tranche
2031EBITDA positive
$127mrevenue in 2034
3.8–5.9×Tranche 1 MOIC · IRR 21–29%
Detailed specification
208 numbered requirements with verification methods; partner review across R&D, mechanics, electronics, software and risk control
Partner confirmation
Formal response letter of June 2026: parameters, deliverables, readiness for the full development cycle and documentation transfer
Framework in force
Dubai Law No. 9 of 2023 and Administrative Decision No. 939 of 2025: autonomous vehicle licensing and activity permits
Open niche
Delivery into a tower, through the lobby and the lift to the apartment door, is done only by riders today
The problem: rider capacity is capped by law
In a high-rise city the expensive part of a drop is the lobby, the security desk, the lift and the corridor
80%+of Dubai lives in high-rise housinghousing statistics, 2025
$2.50–3.50loaded rider cost per dropmarket practice, 2026
3 ordersper rider cap, 60-min window15 June to 15 September
AED 5,000penalty per breachmidday working rules
Market
- Quick commerce in the UAE: USD 1.86bn by 2029
- Talabat, Careem, noon and grocery chains carry most door deliveries
- A lift-riding robot trial began in a Dubai tower in September 2026 — inside one building only
Licensing framework in force
Dubai Law No. 9 of 2023 licenses autonomous vehicles and permits autonomous activity; Decision No. 939 of 2025 sets local testing and the safety case. The lobby, lift and corridor are private property: access is arranged with the owners’ association or facilities manager, not a regulator.
TAM, SAM, SOM: bottom-up build
Derived from the number of apartment-door deliveries, not from top-down industry forecasts
TAM
$1.65bn
550m apartment-door deliveries a year × $3.00. E-commerce door deliveries 200m plus food 250m and grocery and pharmacy 100m a year
SAM
$405m
193m deliveries a year × $2.10 (DRT tariff). High-rise housing 60% → buildings with lift and managed lobby 65% → density where the robot beats a rider 90%
SOM 2034
$127m
58.9m deliveries with a fleet of 5,700 robots. 30.5% of SAM and 10.7% of TAM; the constraint is the pace of fleet build, not demand
Cross-check: 550m deliveries ≈ 138k riders × $14k a year = $1.93bn — same order of magnitude. Sources: published UAE quick commerce databooks, platform disclosures, housing statistics, rider cost build-up 2026
Product: DRT-1, a wheel-legged platform
≥ 20 kgtotal payload
3–4lockable compartments
5–7 kgper parcel
Hybrid locomotion
Four knee-jointed legs with wheel-feet: rolling on flat ground, stepping on stairs
Manipulator
Intercom, security desk, lift buttons, doorbell, light doors, handover
Narrow body
Fits lobbies and compact lifts; the arm folds within the envelope
Autonomy and teleoperation
Fallback behaviour, remote supervisor, mission logs; 1 operator per 6 → 12 robots
Safety
PL d category 3, speed and force limiting, authenticated handover
Heat and dust
50 °C ambient, cooled actuators and battery, air-purged optics, IP67
End-to-end delivery without a courier
Pick-up
3–4 parcels at a micro-hub
Street
Pavement, plaza, driveway
Lobby
Security desk or access API
Lift
Call, floor, exit
Handover
Doorbell, verification, release
Return
Next task or charging dock
Position in the chain
Riders reach the tower, sidewalk rovers stop at the kerb, indoor robots live inside one building. The stretch from the street through the lobby and the lift to the apartment door is still done by people. DRT closes exactly that gap.
Fallback logic
Lift busy, no answer at the security desk, customer asks the robot to wait — the robot switches to a fallback: wait, deposit into a ground-floor locker, hand over to the concierge or escalate to an operator.
Technology partner
A developer of special-purpose and humanoid robotics with its own manufacturing
- Industrial and mechanical design
- In-house software and hardware, including actuators and manipulators
- Navigation algorithms and perception systems
- Robots already in industrial service at a major industrial customer
- Series production and cross-border technology transfer with engineer training
The partner is named after an NDA is signed
Status: June 2026
A formal response letter confirms every parameter of the specification, the operating scenarios and readiness for the full development cycle with performance guarantees. Hot-climate engineering is added on top. The partner’s work is a separate budget line. Contract: $3.6m, of which $2.3m in the first twelve months.
Unit economics: 2.5–3.6× cheaper than a human drop
A robot delivery costs $0.98 against $2.50–3.50 for a human; the $2.10 tariff is 16–40% below the courier
Cost per delivery, USD
| Deliveries per day, per robot | 33.3 |
| Deliveries per year (330 days) | 11,000 |
| Revenue per robot, per year | $23,793 |
| Direct cost per robot | $7,500 |
| Contribution | $16,293 (68%) |
| Robot: batch → series | $40k → $22k |
| Payback per robot | 1.35 years |
| Robot breakeven | 10.5 deliveries a day |
RaaS model: the robot stays on DRT’s balance sheet and the partner pays $2.10 per delivery against $2.50–3.50 for a human drop — no capex and no fleet liability.
Financial trajectory: EBITDA positive from 2031
Revenue and EBITDA, USD m; EBITDA after the IP and product upgrade programmes
Revenue, USD mEBITDA, USD m
| 2029 | 2030 | 2031 | 2032 | 2033 | 2034 | 2035 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fleet at year end, units | 250 | 900 | 2,200 | 3,800 | 5,000 | 5,700 | 6,200 |
| Deliveries, million | 1.4 | 6.3 | 17.1 | 33.0 | 48.4 | 58.9 | 65.5 |
| Net profit, USD m | −10.6 | −7.7 | −0.4 | 13.2 | 28.5 | 37.1 | 43.9 |
Tranche 1: $14.8m for twelve months to the MVP
Built bottom-up: staffing plan, platform contract, work breakdown; nothing spent on the fleet
Tranche 1 structure
- Team30%
- G&A and set-up17%
- Platform and software23%
- Mock-up prototype6%
- Design Competitions, certification8%
- Intellectual property7%
- Reserve to the next stage9%
30people on the staffing plan by the end of year one; fully loaded cost
$4.4mpayroll over twelve months
$2.3mpartner work, first twelve months
$0.8mmock-up prototype: layout and mobility
$1.0mDesign Competition: 4 positions × 2 suppliers
$1.3mreserve to the next-stage closing
Twelve-month plan $13.5m + reserve $1.3m = Tranche 1 of $14.8m. Full breakdown in the financial model and work breakdown after NDA.
After the MVP: fleet, leasing and co-investors
The fleet is bought only against take-or-pay contracts; 70% of its cost is leasing and project finance
Bought in year, unitsOperating, units
EBITDA / debt service, ×
70%of the fleet on leasing and project finance
≥ 60%of the fleet contracted take-or-pay before each batch
3.41×min. debt cover by EBITDA at plateau
5,700robots in the fleet by 2034
Stage and financial status
DRT — Delivery Robot Technologies · pre-seed stage · product DRT-1
Stage
Pre-seed: specification complete and reviewed
Revenue, last 12 months
$0 — no sales yet
First revenue
Q1 2029 — production-intent batch
Debt and liabilities
None
Tranche 1 spend by quarter
| Q1 2027 | $0.80m/mo | Closing, contract, core team |
| Q2 2027 | $1.06m/mo | Draft design, Design Competitions |
| Q3 2027 | $1.28m/mo | Detailed design, patent filings |
| Q4 2027 | $1.35m/mo | Mock-up → MVP |
Completed to date
- Specification agreed and detailed: 208 requirements
- Partner response letter: parameters, deliverables, readiness for development
- Core team in place: CEO, CTO, COO, BDD; staffing plan for 30 people
- Memorandum, financial model, work breakdown and term sheet prepared
Team
The partner transaction, engineering acceptance, local production, anchor contracts and go-to-market
Ilya Levchuk
CTO
19 years, PhD. EFKO — built the drone and robotics line from scratch. Fplus — 42 products, a RUB 20bn+ portfolio, a team of 96. Huawei — a RUB 120bn portfolio, manufacturing localisation.
Igor Bogachev
COO
LLM in international law (Beijing), fluent Mandarin. Cross-border transactions, Belt and Road centre (Hong Kong). Foreign trade, due diligence, sanctions compliance, logistics.
Sergey Grinemayer
BDD
15+ years in industrial sales and technology transfer. Hyundai Corporation — 11 years, joint ventures and localisation, projects above USD 100m. Rusel, Vostochnoe Partnerstvo.
Hiring from Tranche 1 follows the staffing plan: 30 people by the end of the first year, key roles filled by month six.
The offer: $14.8m for 19.4%
Seed round · Tranche 1 for twelve months to the MVP · the share price is fixed at signing · 15% discount to the computed valuation
Q1 2027$2.4m
Closing, project company, platform contract, core team, specification detailed
Q2 2027$3.2m
Draft design accepted, parallel development competitions launched, navigation stack
Q3 2027$3.9m
Detailed design, patent search and priority filings, building access agreements
Q4 2027$4.0m
Mock-up built and verified, architecture and detailed design accepted
Month 12 · Q1 2028MVP
Accepted against protocols: stairs under load, intercom and lift, a shift without GNSS. Then with co-investors
What the investor gets
- A 19.42% holding for Tranche 1, in share counts; the price is fixed at signing
- Pro rata participation in the next stages, ROFR and ROFO, tag-along and drag-along
- 1× liquidation preference, anti-dilution, veto over budget and IP
- A board seat, monthly reporting, access to acceptance protocols
Exit: 2034
- Enterprise value $0.51bn–$0.77bn, less debt of $36.7m
- Tranche 1 holding at exit, 11.8%: $56.0m–$87.4m
- MOIC 3.78×–5.91× · IRR 20.9%–28.9%
Tranche 1 valuation and cap table: holdings in share counts
Three methods weighted 50/35/15 · rate at Tranche 1 33.2% · holdings sum to 100% on every row
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Amount and date | $14.8m · Q1 2027 |
| Computed pre-money | $72.2m |
| Subscription pre-money | $61.4m (−15%) |
| Post-money | $76.2m |
| Price per share | $6.14 |
| Founder / investor shares | 10,000,000 / 2,410,610 |
| Investor holding after the tranche | 19.42% |
| After the 12% option pool | 17.09% |
Seed holding without taking part in later stages, %
With pro rata the holding is kept: 19.4% before the option pool, 17.1% after it
Later stages are priced at 1.08–1.56× the seed share price: each next drawdown buys fewer shares for the same money. The subscription price is 15% below the computed valuation, and for the seed investor it is the lowest price in the whole programme.
Project NPV and IRR, and the return on Tranche 1
The floor: the seed investor takes no part in later stages and is diluted to 11.8% by exit
$159mproject NPV at 15%
31.9%project IRR, full horizon
$156mNPV to the 2034 exit
49.1%IRR to the 2034 exit
Tranche 1 MOIC at the 2034 exit
Tranche 1 IRR, %
Exit: trade sale, listing or hold
Buyers named analytically: no discussions held; the company is prepared from year one for both a sale and a listing
| Category | Companies | Likelihood |
|---|---|---|
| Quick commerce and food | Talabat, Careem, Deliveroo UAE, Instashop | High |
| E-commerce | noon, Amazon.ae | High |
| Grocery and pharmacy | Majid Al Futtaim (Carrefour), Lulu, Spinneys | Medium |
| Logistics and post | Aramex, Emirates Post, DP World | Medium |
| Sovereign and family capital | Mubadala, ADQ, Dubai Holding | Medium |
$0.51bn–$0.77bn enterprise value in 2034: EBITDA × 10.0 and revenue × 3.0, strategic premium
11.8%Tranche 1 holding at exit without taking part in later stages
3.20×Tranche 1 DPI if held, by 2045: 70% of cash flow from the 2040 plateau
Tranche 1 returns
Sale, financial buyer3.78× · 20.9%
Sale, strategic4.52× · 24.0%
Competitive process5.91× · 28.9%
Hold (TVPI)10.71× · 15.8%
IPO
ADX or DFM technology segment; readiness at revenue above USD 80m and two years of positive EBITDA; horizon 2034–2035, free float 20–25%
Roadmap and what diligence will test
- Q4 2026
NDA, data room, due diligence, term sheet
- Q1 2027
Seed closing, Tranche 1, platform contract
- Q1 2028
MVP accepted, next stage with co-investors, pilot
- Q1 2029
Authorisation, first batch of 250
- 2031
Fleet of 2,200, EBITDA > 0
- 2034
Revenue $127m, exit or hold
What diligence will test
RTA classification: whether a delivery robot sits inside the AV permit regime
Hot-climate duty: actuator thermal limit and battery at 45–50 °C
IP rights: GCC licence, escrow of documentation and source code
Building access: owners’ associations and facilities managers
Pilot conversion: take-or-pay in anchor contracts once the MVP funded by Tranche 1 is accepted
Local assembly: free zone contract manufacturing, component supply
Next step
Sign an NDA — and get data room access
- Name and profile of the technology partner and its response letter
- Investment memorandum, presentation and financial model
- Detailed specification, technical report, 79-item bill of materials
- Work breakdown, term sheet and a meeting with the team
Contact
DRT — Delivery Robot Technologies
Alexander Khorokhorin, CEO
+7 (985) 364-60-23
ak@drtrobotics.com
Telegram and WhatsApp: +7 (985) 364-60-23