Swiss startup gains $50 million for four-legged inspection robot
ANYbotics says its ANYmal robot can relieve industrial reliance on aging workforce and labor shortages.
A Swiss startup that makes four-legged robots for industrial inspection tasks has gained $50 million in venture capital funding and says it will develop new capabilities and scale international deployments, Zurich-based ANYbotics said Tuesday.
The investment comes as demand for robotic solutions surges in heavy industries such as oil & gas, chemicals, power, mining, metals & minerals, and utilities. Faced with an aging workforce and labor shortages, these industries increasingly rely on innovative robotics solutions to streamline operations, reduce environmental impact, and increase worker safety, ANYbotics said.
To answer that need, the seven-year-old firm makes the ANYmal, a four-legged autonomous mobile robot (AMR) that uses its walking ability to move beyond conventional, purpose-built environments and solve customer problems in challenging infrastructure so far only accessible to humans.
The “series B” funding round was led by international deep tech investors Walden Catalyst and NGP Capital with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Aramco Ventures, Swisscom Ventures, Swisscanto Private Equity, and other existing investors.
“ANYbotics' state-of-the-art technology coupled with a clear global value proposition is exciting – it enables humans to do what they do best and replace dangerous and repetitive tasks with a fully automated AI-powered robot,” Christian Noske, Partner at NGP Capital, said in a release. “We are excited to work together towards large-scale deployments and further internationalization.”