Zurich-based robotics firm Mimic has raised $16 million in seed funding to enhance the rollout of its physical AI technology, robots designed to perform complex, dexterous tasks in industries where conventional automation still falls short.
The round, led by Elaia with participation from Speedinvest, Founderful, 1st Kind, 10X Founders, 2100 Ventures, and the Sequoia Scout Fund, pushes Mimic’s total funding past $20 million.
The fresh capital will speed up the development of its foundation AI model, humanoid robotic hands, and large-scale industry deployments.
Mimic’s goal is to create robots that can match human finesse in handling intricate tasks on factory floors, from assembling small components to managing logistics processes where precision and adaptability are essential.
While traditional robots are great at repetitive actions, they lack the flexibility to manage the unpredictable nature of real-world environments.
“Humanoids are exciting, but there aren’t many industrial scenarios where the full-body form factor truly adds value,” said Stephan-Daniel Gravert, co-founder and chief product officer at Mimic Robotics.
“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.”
The company’s technology is trained on real human performance. Skilled operators wear Mimic’s proprietary data-collection gear during everyday factory work, capturing precise motion data without interrupting production.
These recordings are then used to teach Mimic’s AI models through imitation learning, allowing robotic hands to replicate human movements with impressive accuracy.
“Our general purpose AI models allow us to automate manual labour in a way that simply was not possible before,” said Elvis Nava, co-founder and chief technology officer. “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.”
Global manufacturers and logistics providers are already testing Mimic’s technology. Pilots are underway with several Fortune 500 companies, including major automotive brands.
The firm’s offering comes at a time when many industrial economies are faced with labour shortages, an ageing workforce, and high costs that make automation more urgent than ever.
Analysts estimate the humanoid and dexterous robotics market could reach $38 billion by 2035, part of a robotics sector projected to be worth up to $1 trillion by 2040.
Founded in 2024 as a spin-off from ETH Zurich, Mimic’s 25-member team combines engineering, research, and industrial expertise. The company has also received support from Switzerland’s federal innovation agency and was selected for the AWS Generative AI Accelerator programme.
“We’re at an inflection point in robotics where learning-based systems meet real industrial needs,” said Stefan Weirich, co-founder and CEO of Mimic Robotics. “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.”
Investors have commended Mimic’s technical and commercial potential. Clément Vanden Driessche, Partner at Elaia, noted, “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, added, “This enables autonomous, versatile manipulation and unlocks a previously untapped segment of the automation market, where the demand for flexible solutions continues to grow.”
Meanwhile, Andreas Schwarzenbrunner, general partner at Speedinvest, said, “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 unlocks human-level dexterity with frontier AI and solves billion-dollar problems on factory floors today. This is the moment Europe steps forward to compete and lead in the new era of AI and robotics.”
