ANYbotics has secured $50 million in a Series B funding round led by Walden Catalyst and NGP Capital, demonstrating the growing interest in its ruggedized four-legged robot, ANYmal X. This funding comes after a successful $22 million round raised in December 2020. The startup has already received preorders and reservations totaling $150 million from major gas, oil, and chemical companies such as PETRONAS, Shell, SLB, Outokumpu, Siemens Energy, BASF, and Vale.
Dr. Péter Fankhauser, co-founder and CEO of ANYbotics, expressed his satisfaction with the funding, highlighting the company’s unique approach to tackling the challenges faced by complex industrial facilities. The legged robots developed by ANYbotics have already proven their value in enhancing productivity and safety. With the new investment, the company aims to expand globally and accelerate the development of its robots’ AI capabilities, specifically in manipulation for maintenance work, with the goal of revolutionizing automated industrial operations.
ANYmal’s market niche resembles that of Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot. The strong demand indicated by the preorders shows that ANYmal was designed with a specific industry in mind. Its primary applications include filling job vacancies and conducting patrols in processing plants to enhance worker safety and minimize environmental impact.
The tasks performed in these industrial environments are notoriously challenging to fulfill and maintain due to the multitude of risks involved for human workers. ANYmal promises to assist with some of these human roles while ensuring the safety of its human counterparts.
Young Sohn of Walden Catalyst praised the technology developed by ANYbotics, which enables robots to be easily deployed in complex industrial settings. This efficiency makes them an ideal solution for inspection tasks in hazardous environments where human presence is risky. Sohn also emphasized the potential to leverage ANYbotics’ robust mobility platform and locomotion software stack to expand into new use cases and broaden the company’s market beyond robotic inspection.
ANYbotics has already conducted pilot programs with various early adopters. In addition to its primary industrial applications, ANYmal has been used in research facilities such as ETH Zurich and the University of Oxford. ANYbotics, originating from ETH Zurich in 2016, emerged as a spin-off based on years of development focused on quadrupedal robotic systems.
