Switzerland-based Mimic Robotics AG said Monday it has raised $16 million in seed funding from Elaia and Speedinvest to enable robotic hands to adapt to complex, high-precision tasks that conventional machinery can’t.

Founderful, 1st kind, 10X Founders, 2100 Ventures and Sequoia Scout Fund also participated in the round. Today’s funding brings the total capital raised by Mimic to more than $20 million.

“Humanoids are exciting, but there aren’t many industrial scenarios where the full-body form factor truly adds value,” said co-founder and Chief Product Officer Stephan-Daniel Gravert. “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, Mimic focuses on industrial physical AI robotics models. These artificial intelligence systems interact with the physical world, using sensors to perceive the environment and control robotics solutions to perform real-world tasks. Unlike models that only process digital data, physical AI integrates directly with the physical world by providing robots to perceive, understand and perform complex actions.

By pairing its foundational robotics models with high-mobility robot hands and commercially available arms, the company allows its solutions to be easily deployed across numerous industries. The technology is used to automate manual labor in retail, manufacturing and logistics. The robotic solutions are capable of common and complex assembly, packaging and sorting tasks.

Mimic’s robotic hands contain 21 joints capable of submillimeter precision. Each hand can handle about 7 kilograms of weight, or about 15 pounds.

The company said its platform overcomes the issue of data scarcity by training automated robotics systems through proprietary data collection from workers performing their daily tasks. This way, it can capture detailed movement data from live production without disrupting operations. Mimic then uses the data to allow robotic hands and actuators to “mimic” and reliably reproduce human techniques.

“Our general-purpose AI models allow us to automate manual labour in a way that simply was not possible before,” said co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Elvis Nava.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. predicted that the worldwide market for humanoid and dexterous robots could reach $38 billion by 2035. The same report estimated robot shipments of 1.4 million units over the same time frame. Compared to the broader robotics market, which is predicted to reach between $200 billion and $1 trillion by 2040.

“We’re at an inflection point in robotics where learning-based systems meet real industrial needs,” said co-founder and Chief Executive Stefan Weirich. “We make dexterity deployable at scale, closing the gap between what AI can do in the lab and what factories actually need.”

The company said it intends to use the capital raise to accelerate the development of its foundation robotic AI model and dexterous humanoid hands, and lead deployments with leading global industry partners.

Mimic’s technology is currently undergoing pilot programs with various industry manufacturers. The company has not disclosed specific names, but confirmed that these include Fortune 500 companies and global automotive brands. Mimic is also partnering with leading multinational logistics providers to deliver robotics capabilities to perform labor-intensive work.

Image: Mimic Robotics