Swiss robotics company Anybotics has raised an additional $60 million to close its Series B round, bringing the total funding to $110 million. This latest investment comes 18 months after the company first announced it had raised a $50 million Series B. The new funding will be used to drive the company's US expansion and scale its autonomous inspection robot business.

Anybotics, spun out from the ETH Zurich research university in 2016, has developed a quadruped autonomous inspection robot called Anymal. Equipped with sensors and cameras, Anymal is designed to monitor equipment in industrial settings, detecting thermal anomalies, combustible gas, and other potential hazards. According to Dr. Péter Fankhauser, co-founder and CEO of Anybotics, the company's technology addresses the challenge of performing routine inspections in complex and hazardous industrial environments.

By automating these tasks, Anybotics' robots minimize human exposure to dangerous or hard-to-reach areas, reduce downtime through more frequent inspections and higher coverage, and streamline maintenance processes, leading to higher productivity and operational reliability. Since raising the first tranche of the Series B, the company has doubled the number of units sold, with close to 200 robots now deployed across the oil and gas, mining, power, utilities, and metals industries.

Anybotics' customers include notable companies such as Novelis, Iamgold, Stelco, and Stanford University, which uses the robots for advanced research purposes. The company has seen increasing demand for its robots, with customers deploying anywhere from a single robot to fleets exceeding 10 robots. The largest customer orders have reached close to 20 robots, with many industrial clients operating over 100 facilities globally, each with the potential to deploy multiple Anymal robots.

The latest investment was co-led by new investors Qualcomm Ventures and Supernova Invest, with participation from existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Nokia-backed NGP Capital, Swisscanto, Swisscom Ventures, TDK Ventures, and Walden Catalyst. Anybotics has now raised a total of $130 million since its inception.

Notably, the company has chosen to label this latest investment as an extension of a funding round that took place 18 months ago, rather than calling it a Series C. According to Fankhauser, this is because the company plans to use the money to scale its core business globally, including expanding in the US. The next capital injection, expected to be much larger, will target broader growth, expanding the company's portfolio into new applications and industries, likely happening after 2026.

The successful closing of this Series B round marks a significant milestone for Anybotics, solidifying its position as a leading player in the industrial automation space. As the company continues to drive its US expansion and scale its business, it will be interesting to see how its autonomous inspection robots impact the industrial landscape.