Swiss robotics company Anybotics has raised an additional $60 million, closing its Series B round at $110 million, nearly 18 months after first announcing it had raised $50 million in Series B funding. .
Anybotics, which was spun out of Research University Zurich in 2016, has built a quadrupedal autonomous inspection robot called Anymal, packed with sensors and cameras to monitor equipment on industrial sites. This includes everything from tracking thermal anomalies to detecting the presence of flammable gases as part of a preventive maintenance plan.
“Anybotics addresses the challenges of performing routine tests in complex and hazardous industrial environments,” company co-founder and CEO Dr. Peter Fankhauser (pictured above, right, with CFO Fredrik Isler) told TechCrunch told. “Automating these tasks minimizes human exposure to hazardous or hard-to-reach areas, reduces downtime with more frequent inspections and wider coverage, and streamlines maintenance processes. , leading to increased productivity and operational reliability.”
In the 18 months since raising its first tranche of Series B, the Zurich-based startup has doubled its sales and now has nearly 200 robots in oil and gas, mining, power, and utility industries. It states that it is being deployed in the business and metal sectors. industry. Customers include Novelis (aluminum rolling and recycling), Iamgold (gold mining), Stelco (steel milling), and Stanford University, which uses Anybotics for “advanced research purposes.”
“Our customers have deployed everything from one robot to more than 10 robots in their locations, with our largest customer ordering close to 20 robots,” Fankhauser explained. “Fleet orders are becoming increasingly common as many of our industrial customers operate over 100 facilities around the world, each with the potential to deploy multiple Anymal robots. .”
Anymal in action image credit: Anybotics
Anybotics has now raised $130 million since its inception, and with $60 million in new money in the bank, the company will move forward with its U.S. expansion with the recently opened San Francisco office. There are plenty of funds available. However, it's worth noting that Anybotics chose to label this latest investment as an extension of a funding round made 18 months ago, rather than calling it a Series C. This all has to do with how the company plans to use the funds.
“The Series B expansion is focused on expanding our core business globally, including expansion in the United States,” Fankhauser said. “Series C aims for broader growth and expands our portfolio into new applications and industries.”
In other words, we can expect the next capital injection to be even larger, but this is unlikely to happen before 2026.
This Series B expansion was co-led by new investors Qualcomm Ventures and Supernova Invest. A number of new and existing investors also participated, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Nokia-backed NGP Capital, Swisscanto, Swisscom Ventures, TDK Ventures, and Walden Catalyst.