SoftBank Invests $200 Million in Gravis Robotics

(CONNECT) Zurich-based Gravis Robotics AG has raised $200 million in a Series A funding round. According to a statement from Gravis, this is the largest investment ever raised in a Series A funding round in the construction robotics sector. The investor is SoftBank. Tokyo Investment Holding is best known as a global holding company and investor. Their Vision Funds are among the world's largest technology investment funds.

Gravis, a robotics company spun off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) in 2018, states that its mission is to “bring software-defined intelligence to an industry that has relied on purely mechanical hardware for decades.” Gravis provides software for autonomous construction machinery that serves as an operating system for mixed fleets of machines. It runs on a control system called Gravis Rack, which is used by machinery manufacturers such as Caterpillar, Case, Develon, John Deere, Hitachi, Volvo, and others. The same core software can control a compact excavator just as easily as a machine five times its size, without the need for any custom programming.

The flexible software platform offers the full spectrum of capabilities, ranging from manual control supported by artificial intelligence to fully autonomous operation. In fully autonomous mode, operators can monitor entire fleets of robots simultaneously. Regardless of the mode, every machine equipped with Gravis functions as a continuous location sensor while in operation and automatically performs surveying and hazard mapping in the background.

“Whether it’s housing construction, the modernization of energy grids, or the expansion of data centers, every project begins with earthwork,” CEO and co-founder Ryan Luke Johns is quoted as saying. This bottleneck has slowed down the entire construction industry so far. “Our machines are designed for the chaotic, unpredictable reality of construction sites, which push conventional automation systems to their limits. With SoftBank’s support, we can hire the best construction workers and engineers, deploy the autonomous technology developed by Gravis on every major construction site, and grow faster than anyone would have thought possible.” ce/mm