# mimic robotics — Dexterous robotic hands and AI models for industrial manipulation.

mimic robotics builds dexterous humanoid robotic hands paired with standard industrial arms, driven by foundation models that learn manual tasks from human demonstrations. An ETH Zurich spin-off, it targets manufacturing, assembly, and logistics work too intricate for conventional automation.

Founded

2024

Headquarters

Zürich, Switzerland

Category

Robotics, Hardware, Applied AI

Legal name

mimic robotics AG

## Highlights

Notable milestones from mimic robotics’s journey — funding rounds, launches, and other moments worth knowing.

Funding - Nov 2025

### $16M seed to deploy physical AI on factory floors

Elaia and Speedinvest co-led an oversubscribed round — with Founderful, 1st Kind, 10X Founders, 2100 Ventures and the Sequoia Scout Fund joining — taking total funding past $20M. mimic said it was already piloting with Fortune 500 manufacturers, global automotive brands and multinational logistics providers.

Round

Seed

Raised

$16M

Led by

Elaia, Speedinvest

**The deployable line-up — fixed and mobile arm stations carrying mimic's hands.**

[Source](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/11/03/3179052/0/en/mimic-robotics-raises-16-million-to-deploy-frontier-physical-AI-across-industries.html)

Launch - Sep 2025

### Robots that learn the job by watching people

mimic's edge is its data engine: skilled operators wear capture devices while doing real factory work, and the recorded movements train imitation-learning models that let the hands reproduce human technique and self-correct as objects shift.

**Human demonstrations, captured live, become training data for the hands.**

[Source](https://ai.ethz.ch/news-and-events/ai-center-news/2025/09/mimic_Robotics_Seed_Round_2025.html)

Recognition - Feb 2025

### Wins Venture Kick's final stage and CHF 150K

mimic took the third and final stage of Switzerland's Venture Kick, adding CHF 150,000 in non-dilutive backing to develop its robotic-transformer-driven manipulation models.

[Source](https://www.startupticker.ch/en/news/mimic-robotics-wins-third-stage-venture-kick)

Funding - May 2024

### $2.5M pre-seed to put a dexterous hand on a robot arm

Founderful led the first round, joined by another.vc, Tiny.vc and angels. The demo that sold it: a tendon-driven humanoid hand picking up a croissant and making coffee — fine-motor tasks conventional grippers can't touch.

Round

Pre-Seed

Raised

$2.5M

Led by

Founderful

**The croissant pick mimic used to show off fine-motor dexterity.**

[Source](https://sifted.eu/articles/mimic-ai-robotic-arm)

Team - Apr 2024

### An ETH Zurich spin-off bets on hands, not humanoids

Five founders out of ETH Zurich's Soft Robotics Lab — Stefan Weirich, Stephan-Daniel Gravert, Elvis Nava, Benedek Forrai and lab director Robert Katzschmann — started mimic on a contrarian thesis: skip the full-body humanoid and put human-level dexterity into a hand that bolts onto a conventional robot arm.

**The founding team, spun out of ETH Zurich's Soft Robotics Lab.**

[Source](https://ai.ethz.ch/news-and-events/ai-center-news/2025/09/mimic_Robotics_Seed_Round_2025.html)