Baemin Dilly: from restaurant serving to sidewalk delivery in Gangnam

Dilly is the robot business of Woowa Brothers, operator of the Baemin food delivery app. Its serving robots spread quickly through restaurants, while its delivery robots began regular sidewalk runs only after the law changed.

A serving robot that started at a Pizza Hut

Woowa Brothers runs Baemin, Korea’s food delivery app. In 2018 it tested a serving robot at a Pizza Hut in Mokdong, using a robot from Bear Robotics, a company it had invested in. The robot carried up to 22 kg and ran about eight hours per charge. In November 2019 Woowa launched what it described as Korea’s first serving-robot rental service, on 24- or 36-month contracts that included maintenance and insurance; by 2023 a 36-month contract cost about ₩340,000 a month. Development of the delivery robot Dilly began in 2017, and in 2019 five units delivered drinks and sandwiches on Konkuk University’s Seoul campus.

2,200 robots in restaurants, four on Gangnam’s sidewalks

Serving robots spread quickly, from 241 units in 186 restaurants in October 2020 to about 2,200 at about 1,600 sites by August 2023. In February 2023 the business moved into a subsidiary, B-Robotics. Delivery robots moved more slowly. A 2020 outdoor pilot at Gwanggyo Alleyway in Suwon ran under a regulatory sandbox with escort staff, and Dilly Tower tested elevator rides to apartment doors. When the amended Intelligent Robots Act took effect in November 2023, certified robots gained pedestrian status on sidewalks. Dilly passed outdoor safety certification in August 2024 and began unmanned B Mart deliveries with four robots in Nonhyeon and Yeoksam in February 2025. In August 2026 a new model, about 20 units, widened service to a 2 km radius covering about 4,400 buildings around Teheran-ro and COEX.

Owners welcomed it; riders worried

In 2020 a restaurant owner in Incheon said that running the kitchen and packing orders alone had left no time for dine-in guests, and that the serving robot made the shop far easier to run. In a six-week pre-test before the Konkuk pilot, users rated the delivery service 6.2 out of 7. Views on sidewalk delivery are mixed. In 2025 one startup CEO said robot delivery would struggle to be more than show-off marketing for now, and a rider union warned that riders would inevitably lose work.

One company, two robots, two speeds

Serving robots worked inside restaurants, so an owner could simply decide to bring one in. Delivery robots had to pass sidewalks, elevators and apartment gates, and began regular runs only after the law changed and certification followed. The same company’s robots spread at very different speeds depending on who controlled the space they worked in. Unlike Amazon Scout, which ended its sidewalk tests in 2022, Dilly is widening its area step by step after the rules were settled.

Who sets the rules for the paths a robot travels, and when?

What we haven’t confirmed