Insider Brief
- Zurich-based robotics startup mimic raised $16 million in seed funding to scale its AI-powered dexterous robotics platform.
- The company pairs proprietary robotic hands with standard robot arms, using AI models trained on human demonstrations for industrial tasks.
- Backers include Elaia, Speedinvest, and Sequoia Scout Fund; the funds will support foundation model development and commercial deployments.
Zurich-based robotics startup mimic has announced raising $16 million in seed funding to advance its physical AI platform, which aims to equip robots with human-level dexterity for industrial settings. The round was led by Elaia and Speedinvest, with participation from Founderful, 1st Kind, 10X Founders, 2100 Ventures, and the Sequoia Scout Fund, according to mimic, which noted it has now raised more than $20 million to date.
“Humanoids are exciting, but there aren’t many industrial scenarios where the full-body form factor truly adds value,” Stephan-Daniel Gravert, co-founder and CPO at mimic, said in announcing the funding. “Our approach pairs AI-driven dexterous robotic hands with proven, off-the-shelf robot arms to deliver the same capabilities in a way that is much simpler, more reliable and rapidly deployable.
Founded in 2024 as a spin-off from ETH Zurich, mimic develops general-purpose AI models trained on human demonstrations collected directly from factory floors. Its system pairs off-the-shelf robot arms with in-house dexterous robotic hands designed to handle tasks that traditional automation systems have struggled to address, according to mimic.
“Our general purpose AI models allow us to automate manual labour in a way that simply was not possible before,” noted Elvis Nava, co-founder and CTO at mimic. “Thanks to our unique focus on human-like dexterity and human data, we are competitive at the robot foundation model layer as well as the application layer.”
The company is targeting labor-intensive applications in manufacturing, logistics, and assembly — sectors where the company indicated that labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and cost pressures have made automation increasingly attractive. While conventional robots excel at repetitive tasks in controlled environments, their adoption remains limited in more complex settings requiring nuanced physical interaction.
Rather than pursuing full humanoid robots, which face cost and deployment challenges, mimic focuses on task-specific dexterity, the company said. Its AI models use imitation learning to replicate human motor skills and allow robots to adapt to changing object positions, disturbances, and other variations common in industrial environments.
Mimic said its technology is already being piloted by multinational manufacturers and logistics providers. The new capital will be used to scale its foundation model, expand hardware development, and support ongoing commercial deployments.
“We’re at an inflection point in robotics where learning-based systems meet real industrial needs,” Stefan Weirich, co-founder and CEO at mimic, pointed out. “We make dexterity deployable at scale, closing the gap between what AI can do in the lab and what factories actually need. Europe has the talent, the infrastructure, and the demand, and we’re building the company that brings all of this together.”
The company employs 25 people and has received non-dilutive support from Innosuisse, Switzerland’s federal innovation agency. It was also selected for the AWS Generative AI Accelerator program.
Image credit: mimic
