Swiss robotics company Anybotics has raised an extra $60 million to close its Series B round off at $110 million, some 18 months after first announcing it had raised a $50 million Series B.
Spun out from the Eth Zurich research university in 2016, Anybotics has built a quadruped autonomous inspection robot dubbed Anymal, replete with sensors and cameras for monitoring equipment in industrial settings. This could be anything from tracking thermal anomalies as part of a preventative maintenance regimen to detecting the presence of combustible gas.
“Anybotics addresses the challenge of performing routine inspections in complex and hazardous industrial environments,” the company’s co-founder and CEO, Dr. Péter Fankhauser (pictured above on the right, with CFO Fredrik Isler) told TechCrunch. “By automating these tasks, we minimize human exposure to dangerous or hard-to-reach areas, reduce downtime through more frequent inspections and higher coverage, and streamline maintenance processes, leading to higher productivity and operational reliability.”
In the 18 months since raising the first tranche of the Series B, the Zürich-based startup says it has doubled the number of units sold, with close to 200 robots now deployed across the oil and gas, mining, power, utilities, and metals industries. 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 deploy anywhere from a single robot to fleets exceeding 10 robots, with the largest customer orders close to 20 robots,” Fankhauser explained. “Fleet orders are increasingly common, as many of our industrial clients operate over 100 facilities globally, each with the potential to deploy multiple Anymal robots.”
Anybotics has now raised $130 million since its inception, and with a fresh $60 million in the bank, the company is well-financed to drive its U.S. expansion in the wake of its recently opened San Francisco office. However, it’s notable that Anybotics has chosen to label this latest investment as an extension of a funding round that took place 18 months ago, rather than call it a Series C. This is all to do with how the company plans to use the money.
“The Series B extension focuses on scaling our core business globally, including expanding in the U.S.,” Fankhauser said. “The Series C will target broader growth, expanding our portfolio into new applications and industries.”
In other words, we can likely expect the next capital injection to be much bigger, though this isn’t likely to happen before 2026.
This Series B extension was co-led by new investors Qualcomm Ventures and Supernova Invest. A slew of new and existing investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Nokia-backed NGP Capital, Swisscanto, Swisscom Ventures, TDK Ventures, and Walden Catalyst, also participated.
