SAEKI Robotics has secured funding of 2.3 million US dollars from investors. The seed funding round for the spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), which was only founded in 2022 and is based in Lupfig in the canton of Aargau, was led by the Zurich-based investment firm Wingman Ventures. Also involved in the financing round were the two venture capital firms Vento from Turin in northern Italy and GETTY from New York, in addition to angel investors.
According to a LinkedIn post from SAEKI, this financing serves to “supercharge our mission to build a network of decentralized, lights-out factories combining digital manufacturing and robotics to produce large-scale parts at lightspeed”. These could, for example, include wind turbine blades, components for concrete building parts or even airplane and car parts.
According to an article published on Techcrunch linked by SAEKI in its LinkedIn post, the three founders decided to focus on setting up fully automated factories with independent robotic cells that can be booked by customers. “What we consistently hear from people and companies is a desire for faster more sustainable solutions for their parts”, comments co-founder Andrea Perissinotto, adding that: “Merely offering savings through a multi-million-dollar machine that requires extensive space and additional resources, including hiring personnel well-versed in new processes and materials, is not appealing to them”.
The article goes on to the state that the company is also planning to work with the composites industry for strong, lightweight components used in airplanes, cars and bicycles. SAEKI’s technology aims to eliminate the time-consuming and expensive manufacturing of complex shapes from metal or composite materials, thereby removing a potential bottleneck scenario for companies.
