Swiss firm raises $16m to bring its dextrous hands to robot arms
3 November 2025 
A Swiss robotics start-up has raised $16m to help develop its human-like “hands” and AI technologies that allow conventional robot arms to handle complex, dexterous tasks that conventional machines cannot. Zurich-based mimic robotics argues that its technologies can provide robot arms with precision handling capabilities, while avoiding the complexities and limitations of full humanoid robots.
“Humanoids are exciting, but there aren’t many industrial scenarios where the full-body form factor truly adds value,” says mimic’s 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.”
Mimic points out that on factory floors around the world, millions of intricate manual tasks still depend on human skills. Many of these tasks remain out of the reach of traditional automation. While traditional robots excel at repetitive, pre-programmed motions in controlled environments, they need costly set-up and custom coding for each task.
And while the race to build humanoid robots has attracted billions in investment – led largely by companies in the US and China – adoption remains limited. Safety and regulatory concerns, high costs and limited dexterity, have all slowed real-world deployment, according to mimic.
The Swiss company builds physical AI models trained on real-world human demonstrations, using innovative methods to overcome the data scarcity in robotics. Skilled operators wearing data-collection devices as they work, provide detailed movement data from live production settings without disrupting operations.
These demonstrations are then used to train AI models via imitation learning. This allows mimic’s robotic hands to reproduce human actions reliably. Its physical AI models ensure that the robots react autonomously to objects that change position or orientation, and self-correct their actions, operating in environments designed for humans.
“Our general-purpose AI models allow us to automate manual labour in a way that simply was not possible before,” explains mimic co-founder and chief technology officer, Elvis Nava. “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.”
According to mimic, its technology is already being piloted with “top-tier” manufacturers, including Fortune 500 companies and global automotive brands. The start-up is also partnering with multinational logistics providers, and reports strong interest from other labour-intensive sectors.
The company, founded in 2024 as a spin-off from the ETH Zurich university, has brought together a multidisciplinary team of 25 engineers, researchers and operators. Over the past year, it has secured funding from the Swiss federal innovation agency and was chosen for the AWS Generative AI Accelerator – a programme supporting early-stage companies applying advanced AI to real-world challenges.
The latest oversubscribed seed round brings mimic’s total funding to date to more than $20m. The new capital will be used to accelerate the development of the company’s AI model and robotic hands, and to advance deployments with industrial players around the world.
“We’re at an inflection point in robotics where learning-based systems meet real industrial needs,” says co-founder and CEO, Stefan Weirich. “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.”
Analysts predict that the global humanoid and dexterous robotics market could be worth $38bn by 2035, with the broader robotics market reaching between $200bn and $1 trillion by 2040.
