Zurich-based startup mimic has raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed round led by Swiss investor Founderful. German another.vc, UK-based Tiny Supercomputer Investment Company, and various angel investors joined as well.
- mimic was launched in 2024 by Elvis Nava, Stefan Weirich, Stephan-Daniel Gravert, and Benedek Forrai. The startup is an ETH Zurich spinoff, where the founders were working on the connection of AI and robots at Soft Robotic Labs. At this moment, mimic creates robots that can comprehend and mimic human behavior using generative AI, which is changing the way robotics fit into our daily lives and the economy, the startup claims.
- mimic doesn't aim to create a whole robot — it specializes only on manufacturing hands, which are made for any business where employees perform difficult-to-automate, repetitive jobs requiring complex motor skills. Thus, the robots are capable of carrying out jobs with little assistance from engineers and without the need for costly, time-consuming programming for every new duty.
- The leading investor in this round is Swiss VC Founderful, which was founded in 2019. The company invests in pre-seed rounds only.
“We were impressed by mimic’s technology and vision. We believe that the market for AI-driven robots is going to grow exponentially, and we will see these robots gain widespread adoption very soon, Alex Stöckl, founding partner at Founderful, said to Forbes.
- The investment is going to be used for the creation of the first on-market humanoid-handled collaborative robots. It will be powered by AI in order to alleviate the worldwide lack of workers in various sectors. The product is planned to be launched this year.
