Bezos-Led Funding Round Values Swiss Robot Maker at $100 Million

This content was published on August 28, 2024 - 14:36

2 minutes

(Bloomberg) — Robot maker Swiss-Mile is close to receiving a valuation of more than $100 million in a seed funding round backed by Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, according to people familiar with the matter.

Swiss-Mile is set to raise about $20 million from investors including Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, Bezos Expeditions and HongShan, which was formerly Sequoia Capital China, the people said, declining to be identified because the information is private. Swiss firm Armada Investment, the sole European investor, and existing shareholder Linear Capital also took part in the funding, the people said.

Zurich-based Swiss-Mile developed the autonomous wheeled-legged Robotic Mule and Robotic Watchdog, which are designed for carrying and monitoring, respectively, according to its website. The company, which was incorporated in April 2023, says it aims to relieve humans from strenuous and tedious tasks.

Swiss-Mile’s robots work with neural networks, an artificial intelligence-powered way of teaching computers to process data like the human brain. Its prototypes can navigate city traffic, avoid obstacles and climb steps.

Bezos has been ramping up AI investment in recent months, including in humanoid-robot firm Figure AI and search-engine company Perplexity AI. Amazon also has bots from Agility Robotics, which it backed in 2022, in testing at one of its warehouses.

A representative for Armada declined to comment. Representatives for Swiss-Mile and its other investors didn’t respond to a request for comment outside of regular business hours.

Earlier this year, OpenAI-backed Norwegian robotics startup 1X Technologies AS raised $100 million. Vancouver-based Sanctuary AI is developing a humanoid robot called Phoenix. And Tesla Inc. is working on a robot called Optimus, with Elon Musk calling it one of his most important projects.