Four-legged robot convinces investors

ANYbotics has raised a total of 20 million Swiss francs as part of a Series A financing round, as detailed in a press release. The financing round was led by Swisscom Ventures, the venture capital arm of Swisscom. In addition, investors such as the Geneva-based Ace & Company and EquityPitcher Ventures from Zurich were also involved in the process.

ANYbotics was established in 2016 as a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH). The company has developed a four-legged robot in the form of the ANYmal that is able to see, hear and move around in challenging environments. In the future, the intention is to deploy the ANYmal to inspect and monitor industrial plants and sewer systems in addition to undertaking dangerous maintenance tasks. As part of a pilot project, the ANYmal has already been put to work independently in the sewers beneath Zurich. ANYbotics is, however, also already cooperating with companies from the construction sector and energy industry, as Péter Fankhauser, co-founder and CEO of ANYbotics, explains.

Over the past four years, the company has focused on bringing its robots from the lab into the real world. With this fresh capital injection, the large-scale deployment of the ANYmal should now be accelerated.

“What really got us excited is ANYbotics’ cutting edge technology that has its roots in one of the world’s leading robotics labs at ETH Zurich”, comments Alexander Schläpfer from Swisscom Ventures in the press release.