July 9, 2026 Beijing time, California based startup Queue officially launched the world's first fully automated robotic pharmacy and announced the completion of a $12.6 million seed funding round to accelerate the system's R&D and commercial deployment.
The technology arrives at a time when the U.S. pharmacy industry is grappling with severe labor shortages and the growing spread of "pharmacy deserts."
Financing
Queue completed an oversubscribed $12.6 million seed round led by U.S. venture capital firm AlleyCorp. Less than a year ago, the company also closed a $6 million preseed round led by Riot Ventures.
This brings Queue's total funding to $18.6 million. Additional participants in the current round include House Capital, Ubiquity Ventures, Grep Ventures, and Banter Capital.
AlleyCorp partner Abe Murray said in a statement: "What the Queue team has achieved in medical hardware development is truly rare. We decided to lead this round because we believe Queue is building critical infrastructure that not only improves patient access to needed prescriptions but also uses robotics and automation to significantly alleviate the labor constraints facing the entire pharmacy industry."
Technology Breakthrough
Unlike traditional pharmacy automation equipment that can only assist with a few discrete tasks, Queue's platform integrates drug dispensing, verification, and delivery into a fully autonomous workflow. The system starts with sealed wholesale drug vials and ends with a filled and verified prescription bottle, requiring minimal human intervention along the way.
The platform combines robotics, computer vision, and automated handling mechanisms to manage drug storage, counting, dispensing, and verification.
Currently, the system supports 250 commonly prescribed U.S. drugs, covering the vast majority of routine prescription needs. To ensure medication safety, the system incorporates multiple layers of automated safety checks throughout the dispensing process.
Queue says its robotic system can reduce dispensing and delivery costs by up to 96% compared to traditional pharmacy models. The modular design allows deployment in retail pharmacies, hospitals, rural communities, and other medically underserved settings.
Founding Team
Queue was cofounded by serial entrepreneur Nick Desai and technology expert Josh Liu. Desai previously founded Heal, a home visit medical company that raised over $200 million and was acquired by Humana in 2023.
He also cofounded AI healthcare application Together by Renee with his wife Dr. Renee Dua, which was acquired by Cairns Health last year. CTO Josh Liu has prior experience at Tesla and Zipline.
The company currently has a 20 person engineering team and is actively hiring in robotics, hardware, software, and pharmacy operations.
（Nick Desai）
Market Context
The launch of Queue's robotic pharmacy comes amid increasingly challenging operating conditions for the U.S. pharmacy industry.
According to the National Community Pharmacists Association, more than three quarters of community pharmacies report difficulty filling job vacancies. The American Society of Health System Pharmacists reports that pharmacy technician vacancy rates are as high as 40% or more.
Meanwhile, declining drug reimbursement rates from insurers and government programs continue to put persistent financial pressure on many pharmacies.
Future Outlook
Queue's Chief Technology Officer Josh Liu said: "The U.S. pharmacy industry is structurally broken, and Queue will bring a complete reimagining of how drugs are dispensed, verified, and delivered."
Queue does not position the platform merely as a pharmacy automation tool, but as a new infrastructure layer for prescription fulfillment.
Industry analysts believe that Queue's fully automated robotic pharmacy could offer a novel solution to the structural challenges of the U.S. pharmacy industry, by lowering operating costs, improving dispensing efficiency and safety, and driving the shift from traditional manual models toward automated, scalable prescription services.