mimic, a robotics company based in Zurich, has successfully raised $16 million in a funding round led by Elaia, with participation from Speedinvest. The investment aims to accelerate the deployment of mimic’s frontier physical AI technology, which enables robots to perform complex, dexterous tasks that traditional machines cannot handle. This funding round also saw contributions from Founderful, 1st kind, 10X Founders, 2100 Ventures, and Sequoia Scout Fund, increasing mimic’s total funding to over $20 million.
In the global manufacturing landscape, millions of intricate tasks still rely on human expertise. These tasks remain challenging for conventional automation, particularly in sectors like manufacturing, assembly, and logistics. As labour shortages intensify and industries reshore production in response to global uncertainties, the demand for versatile, intelligent robots has never been more apparent. Traditional robots, while effective in repetitive tasks, require extensive setup and customisation for new operations. Meanwhile, the pursuit of humanoid robots has attracted substantial investment, primarily in the US and China, but real-world adoption remains limited due to safety, cost, and dexterity challenges.
Stephan-Daniel Gravert, co-founder and CPO at mimic, states, “Humanoids are exciting, but there aren’t many industrial scenarios where the full-body form factor truly adds value. 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.”
mimic’s technology involves frontier physical AI models trained on real-world human demonstrations. Operators wear proprietary data collection devices to capture detailed movement data from live production settings, which is then used to train AI models through imitation learning. This enables mimic’s humanoid robotic hands to replicate human techniques reliably. The company’s AI models ensure robots can autonomously adjust to changing environments, handle disturbances, and self-correct actions, making them suitable for human-centric spaces.
Elvis Nava, co-founder and CTO at mimic, comments, “Our general purpose AI models allow us to automate manual labour in a way that simply was not possible before. 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.”
Labour markets in industrial economies face ongoing pressure from aging workforces and rising production costs. Efforts to reduce reliance on global supply chains are driving a shift towards reshoring and automation. Analysts project the global market for humanoid and dexterous robotics could reach $38 billion by 2035, within a broader robotics market estimated between $200 billion and $1 trillion by 2040.
mimic’s technology is already in pilot phases with top-tier manufacturers, including Fortune 500 companies and global automotive brands. The company is also collaborating with leading multinational logistics providers and experiencing strong demand across labour-intensive sectors.
Founded in 2024 as a spin-off from ETH Zurich, mimic comprises a multidisciplinary team of 25 engineers, researchers, and operators. In the past year, the company has obtained non-dilutive funding from Switzerland’s federal innovation agency and was selected for the AWS Generative AI Accelerator programme, which supports early-stage companies applying advanced AI to real-world challenges.
Stefan Weirich, co-founder and CEO at mimic, states, “We’re at an inflection point in robotics where learning-based systems meet real industrial needs. 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.”
Clément Vanden Driessche, Partner at Elaia, says, “Elaia is thrilled to lead the seed round in mimic. The world-class team at mimic is addressing one of the most challenging problems in physical AI: dexterous manipulation. mimic’s breakthrough approach integrates a proprietary robotic hand, state-of-the-art foundation models for robotics, and novel data acquisition and training methods.” Vincent Faber, Investment Manager at Elaia, adds, “This enables autonomous, versatile manipulation and unlocks a previously untapped segment of the automation market, where the demand for flexible solutions continues to grow.”
Andreas Schwarzenbrunner, General Partner at Speedinvest, comments, “At Speedinvest, we’ve always believed that Europe’s strength lies in marrying world-class engineering with foundational research. With mimic, we see exactly that: a platform that
