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CargoX, an autonomous delivery platform based in the UAE, has raised $250 million from an investor group led by BlueFive Capital, the company announced on Tuesday. It will be run by Tomaso Rodriguez, the former chief executive of talabat.
CargoX deploys driverless delivery vehicles across last-mile, middle-mile and long-haul routes, and says it has piloted the platform on public roads in the UAE, with commercial operations expected to begin shortly across Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The company said it has established anchor relationships with e-commerce, retail and logistics operators, and secured regulatory engagement with government entities including Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority and Abu Dhabi Mobility.
The capital will fund the expansion of its network across the UAE and international markets, alongside continued investment in vehicle technology and operations infrastructure.
Rodriguez ran talabat for six years, arriving in 2019 from Grab and growing the business more than ninefold into the largest food delivery service in the Middle East, before steering it through a $2 billion initial public offering on the Dubai Financial Market in December 2024 that valued the company at roughly $10.1 billion and stood as the largest technology listing globally that year.
He stepped down as chief executive in November 2025, handing over to Toon Gyssels, the returning chief operating officer and former interim chief, and stayed on talabat's board as a non-executive director. In March he was named non-executive chairman of Flyby, the Dubai adtech and last-mile business, ahead of its Series A.
"The Middle East is ready for a step-change in logistics efficiency, and autonomous delivery is no longer a future concept," Rodriguez said in a statement, adding that the $250 million gives the company the firepower to scale, starting in Abu Dhabi and Dubai before going global.
BlueFive Capital, which led the round, has become one of the most active new entrants in regional finance since its launch in late 2024 by Hazem Ben-Gacem, the former co-chief executive of Investcorp and a three-decade veteran of the Bahrain-based firm.
BlueFive says it now manages around $15 billion in assets, is incorporated in Abu Dhabi Global Market, and operates from nine cities including London, Riyadh, Singapore and Beijing.
The CargoX cheque is the latest in a fast run of deals. In January, BlueFive led the $230 million seed round into Mal, the AI-native Islamic digital bank founded by former Astra Tech CEO Abdallah Abu-Sheikh, the largest seed round on record in the Middle East and Africa.
In recent weeks it’s taken a 49% stake in the mobility group Massar Solutions from TAQA and signed a recapitalisation-led investment into the Saudi-listed Gulf General Cooperative Insurance, and last year it absorbed the Dubai private wealth and real-estate manager Neo Capital, now rebranded BlueFive Private Wealth, having closed a $2 billion debut private equity fund in July.
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