Focus Sectors
Robotics
Why Switzerland for robotics
The Swiss Drone Industry Map shows about 150 logos and a further 150 companies are active in other fields of robotics. The product range is extremely broad: in addition to robots that fly, walk, roll and dive, Swiss start-ups also produce sorting robots and exoskeletons, as well as important components that expand robotic areas of application, such as force torque sensors.
The wide range of robotics start-ups is not surprising: they benefit from a well-developed research landscape, with no fewer than 25 laboratories at well-known Swiss universities that conduct research in this field. The National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Robotics supported research and transfer to industry for 12 years, and had a total budget of almost USD 90 million at its disposal from 2010 to 2022.
This expertise rooted in research means that robots from Swiss start-ups have unique capabilities. This is not about tricks, but about potential that offers real benefits. Voliro’s drone, for example, is able to remain stationary in the air in any position, allowing it to inspect areas of industrial plants that remain hidden from other drones. Tethys’ underwater robot can perform inspections and surveys even in turbid and rough waters, where human divers often face serious risks.
Data-based insights
Sector insiders invest
Investment in Swiss robotics and hardware start-ups is at a record level. In contrast to software and fintech companies, in 2024 both the amount invested and the number of financing rounds were higher than in the boom years of 2021 and 2022, with a total of almost USD 250 million invested in more than 30 start-ups.
If one takes a closer look at the investments, it is noticeable that a start-up’s customers, such as companies from the aviation industry or corporations, are often among its backers. For example, Meteomatics attracted Lockheed Martin as an investor: the start-up offers extremely precise weather forecasts with the help of its self-developed drones. Dufour Aerospace, which develops tilt-wing aircraft, numbers Vista Global Holding, a leading global private aviation group, among its investors.
Flyability’s collision-tolerant drones are suitable for confined space inspections. Its investors include three US companies that were initially customers of the Swiss start-up: Chevron, Cargill and Dow. Chevron has also invested in SwissDrones, which develops twin-rotor unmanned helicopter systems to replace manned helicopters for a wide range of applications.
Think big and succeed
The story of the Swiss drone ecosystem began in 2008 at ETH Zurich. Students under the guidance of Lorenz Meier began developing drone and flight control software and hardware. They released the software as open source in order that others were able to develop autonomous flight using computer vision. It was a huge success: today, an estimated 80% of all drones worldwide are controlled using the software. In 2017, Meier founded start-up Auterion, now the largest open source drone software company and supplier of an enterprise operating system for drones. Investors include top-class VCs from the US and Europe, as well as the former Google boss Eric Schmidt.
Other start-ups are on the way to global success. The most advanced is Zurich-based Verity: the company already has about 200 employees and has raised more investor money than any other Swiss start-up, at USD 70 million. It was founded by Raffaello D’Andrea, who sold his first robotics start-up, Kiva Systems, to Amazon back in 2012.
A constant stream of innovations
Every year, around 20 robotics start-ups are founded in Switzerland that are able to attract investors. In absolute numbers, Switzerland ranks fourth in Europe behind the big three countries UK, Germany and France. However, the gap is not particularly large and nowhere in Europe are more robotics start-ups launched per capita than in Switzerland, as an analysis based on the Swiss Startup Radar revealed.
The start-up activities are creating a constant stream of innovations. It is remarkable how quickly they are making progress despite the complex technology. For example, Ascento was able to acquire its first customer abroad, just a few months after the company was founded. Ascento Guard, its Robotics-as-a-Service solution for autonomous outdoor security patrolling has been deployed at a university campus in Germany. Mimic Robotics is developing breakthrough collaborative robots with humanoid hands powered by generative AI to ease severe global labour shortages across industries. Shortly after its foundation, the start-up secured USD 2.5 million in pre-seed funding from German, UK and Swiss investors.
Recently Caught Our Attention in Robotics
Start-ups
Success Stories
-
Read more: Fajer Mushtaq, Clean Tech Entrepreneur
Fajer Mushtaq, co-founder and CEO of Oxyle, has raised about CHF 9 million in non-dilutive funds in recent years from innovation programmes, the public sector…
-
Read more: Andreas Brenner, Serial Entrepeneur
Andreas Brenner started at the age of 28, when he founded Avrios.com. He spent seven years as CEO responsible for building an SaaS platform that…
News for
Robotics
-
SAEKI raises $6.7M to transform large-scale manufacturing
As AI accelerates design capabilities, SAEKI is bridging the widening gap between what engineers can design and what can actually be manufactured, end to end.…
startupticker.ch
-
CHF 2.4 billion for Swiss start-ups
Investment in knowledge-based start-ups fell again in 2024, by 8.5% compared with the previous year. The number of financing rounds also fell for the first…
startupticker.ch
-
$22 million for weather intelligence company
Meteomatics, the weather intelligence and technology company that enables the world’s leading companies to accurately forecast the weather’s impact on business, has closed its $22M…
startupticker.ch
-
Embotech Receives CHF 23.5 M in Funding to Expand Autonomous Driving Solutions for Logistics
Embotech closed a CHF23.5 million Series B funding to scale its Automated Vehicle Marshalling (AVM) and Autonomous Terminal Tractor (ATT) solutions in Europe, and ultimately…
startupticker.ch
-
ANYbotics Raises Additional $60 Million to Drive U.S. Expansion
ANYbotics, a global leader in AI-driven robotic inspection solutions, has raised an additional $60 million, bringing its total funding to over $130 million. The new…
startupticker.ch
-
$4.3 million to accelerate people-sensing technology for human-machine interaction
Algorized, an AI-powered platform pioneering advanced people-sensing and positioning software, has raised $4.3 million in seed funding to drive innovation in people sensing and support…
startupticker.ch