The robots from Anybotics can't dance or do somersaults like their US competitors, but they have real uses in the industry. Now the startup is raising new millions.
Anybotics, a robot startup from Zurich, has raised the equivalent of 57 million euros ($60 million). The round was led by Qualcomm Ventures and Supernova Invest. TDK Ventures, among others, has recently joined. Old investors such as NGP Capital and Bessemer Ventures Partners are also involved. In the previous round, the Swiss were able to raise almost 50 million euros. The total financing is now the equivalent of 114 million euros.
The company says the new funds will be used to accelerate global scaling and recent expansion into the United States. Anybotics wants to meet the growing demand for its industrial inspection robots.
Anybotics doesn't want to be a viral company like Boston Dynamics
Millions of people know Boston Dynamics' YouTube videos. When the US company's robots dance, do somersaults or are pushed, the creators regularly achieve a viral hit.
“Boston Dynamics is a fantastic YouTube and marketing machine,” Péter Fankhauser told us in the podcast some time ago. He runs a robotics startup himself, Anybotics. The Americans helped make robotics popular with their videos. However, the founder believes that Boston Dynamics is intentionally playing on viewers' fears that the robots could move uncannily, have artificial intelligence or take away jobs. Because you can generate clicks with it.
Are Anybotics’ robots taking away jobs?
The robots “Anymal” from Anybotics are very similar to the robot dog “Spot” from Boston Dynamics, but the focus of Fankhauser’s Swiss startup is completely different, as the founder explains in the Gründerszene podcast “This is how startup works”. It is not marketing or YouTube that is prioritized, but rather the actual use of the robots by customers. More precisely, in the oil, gas or chemical industries. There, Anybotics' robots walk largely autonomously through the systems and inspect them. Cost: 8,000 euros per month per robot.
It is a task usually performed by humans. So is the fear that robots will take away the workforce justified? Fankhauser says no: his robots are currently primarily used where people would otherwise expose themselves to danger. In addition, the startup's customers such as Siemens or BASF would have a problem recruiting new employees for their systems. The robot therefore relieves the existing long-term employees.
And the robot has another purpose for customers: it attracts new employees, says Fankhauser. By using Anybotics robots, customers can present themselves as modern and future-oriented, which young employees would appreciate.
“We do not undertake armed and military operations”
In the podcast, Péter Fankhauser and Gründerszene editor Georg Räth also talk about another industry that would be interested in robots: armaments and the military. “We find it ethically extremely difficult to leave the decision about life and death to an algorithm,” says Fankhauser. His startup therefore fundamentally rules out dual use: “We do not undertake armed and military operations.”
Instead, the startup is focusing on further developing its technology so that it will probably not only be able to offer four-legged robots in the future. You can find out in the podcast how the startup was able to become so successful and get investors.
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This article first appeared in May 2023 and has been updated.
Source: https://www.businessinsider.de/gruenderszene/technologie/sein-startup-will-bessere-roboter-bauen-als-das-viral-wunder-boston-dynamics-60-millionen/
