Gravis Robotics, an ETH Zurich spinout, fits autonomy kits to excavators. A tie-up would extend Masayoshi Son’s robotics buying spree from the factory floor to the building site.
SoftBank is weighing a deal for Gravis Robotics, a Swiss startup that fits excavators and diggers with the sensors and software to run themselves, according to Bloomberg.
The report did not spell out the shape of any transaction, and the size, structure, and valuation were not disclosed. The discussions appear to be at an early stage, and there is no guarantee they lead anywhere.
What they do signal is where SoftBank is looking next. Masayoshi Son’s group has spent the past year assembling a robotics portfolio at speed, from an $800mn round it is reportedly circling for Agile Robots to smaller bets on the kind of autonomy kits that bolt onto existing machinery.
The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!Gravis Robotics spun out of ETH Zurich in 2022, from the Swiss university’s Robotic Systems Lab. Rather than build a robot from scratch, it retrofits standard heavy equipment, attaching a kit that fuses LiDAR, cameras, GNSS positioning, and hydraulic sensors so an ordinary excavator can trench, grade soil, and manage stockpiles on its own.
