Swiss-Mile Secures $22M in Seed Funding, Co-Led by Jeff Bezos and HongShan

Today, Swiss-Mile is announcing a $22 million seed funding round led by Jeff Bezos through Bezos Expeditions and HongShan. This round also includes participation from the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund and Armada Investment, with continued support from the existing investor Linear Capital. This distinguished investor consortium is proudly welcomed to join the journey in delivering embodied AI, poised to transform and improve millions of lives.

Incorporated in April 2023, Swiss-Mile aims to relieve humanity from strenuous and tedious tasks by connecting AI with the physical world, creating truly autonomous robots. The company joins forces with world-class talent in embodied AI and robotics, tackling the most challenging aspects of mobility, autonomy, and manipulation. In the first year, they achieved early successes with pilot deployments among key customers, including last-mile delivery in smart cities and security for critical infrastructure. These customers witnessed the AI-driven autonomy of the first-of-its-kind wheeled-legged robots, powered by neural networks.

“Swiss-Mile, utilizing their cutting-edge algorithms and the deep research expertise in comprehensive solutions, has developed a product that stands out in this industry,” said Caroline Fu, partner of HongShan. “We are thrilled to observe the technological advancements the company has achieved, and are confident it will play a leading role in transforming the embodied intelligence industry.” HongShan invested through its USD funds, which comprises all international LPs.

Scaling Robotic Intelligence

Swiss-Mile, a spin-off of the Robotic Systems Lab at ETH Zurich, has been at the forefront of integrating artificial neural networks into robots with legs and wheels. The founders have enabled quadrupedal robots to walk, drive, stand upright on two legs and manipulate packages with wheeled end effectors. These capabilities highlight the versatility of the approach, adeptly addressing the real-world challenges of both mobility and manipulation. Integrating these features, mobile robots are set to drive the next wave of automation, advancing beyond the era of static robotic arms. Their embodied AI garnered significant media and industry attention, culminating in a showcase at the GTC 2022 keynote with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. Beyond scientific contributions, the founders demonstrated real-world robotics applications by being part of the winning team of the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, which the Washington Post has called “The Super Bowl of Robotics.”

“Swiss-Mile stands out as one of the leading embodied AI companies globally, founded by pioneers who initiated this trend,” said Harry Wang, founder and CEO of Linear Capital. “What excites me most about Swiss-Mile is their international and customer-centric mindset from the very beginning. They will be able to leverage their global resources to make Swiss-Mile a leading power in the next wave of physical AI revolution.”

By integrating reinforcement and supervised learning into a unified framework, the company enables robots to autonomously learn from scratch and adapt based on real-world deployments. This approach allows them to generate and scale novel robotic behaviors, continually refining them through data collected from both real-world environments and synthetic scenarios. Swiss-Mile can bring any robotic machine to life through this versatile AI framework that is independent of the robot’s embodiment. Demonstrating this versatility, the company has successfully adapted by training a new neural network for a different robotic hardware in just a week.

Customer-Centric Business Approach

Swiss-Mile combines technical excellence with a customer-centric business mindset and the drive to scale effectively and quickly. They have begun pilot integrations with beta clients across the globe, enabling rigorous tests of embodied AI in diverse real-world settings. Just a month after their inception, the company deployed a first robot for last-mile delivery. Swiss-Mile has since engaged with a broader range of leads across sectors such as monitoring and logistics, starting to address the growing global challenge of labor shortages—a crisis that could impose a $10 trillion economic burden on nations struggling with workforce deficits. Their technology serves as a game-changer for mobile robots, unlocking new use cases in highly dynamic environments, thereby transforming how industries operate and providing critical solutions to alleviate worker shortages.

“The Swiss-Mile team is building innovative real world-oriented solutions utilizing embodied AI and robotics, bringing their expertise to various industries,” said Franziska Bossart, Head of the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund. “We at the Industrial Innovation Fund are delighted to support their team, recognizing the potential these technologies hold for Amazon.”

Additionally, Daniel S. Aegerter, founder and CEO of Armada Investment, shares his perspective on the company: “Artificial intelligence combined with low-cost, high-performance hardware will unlock an abundance of productive use-cases for autonomous robots, heralding a new era of economic activity. We are excited by what is now possible. The Swiss-Mile team are true pioneers in this emerging segment, possessing the talent, ambition, and audacity to build a category-defining company. Alongside their extraordinary technical track record, the team are relentless in their pursuit of customer value. This culture will differentiate Swiss-Mile in the long run.”

Join the Company

If you are passionate about embodied AI and robotics, then join the transformative journey by exploring open positions here. The team is renowned for pioneering robotic design and applying neural networks in ways that enhance environmental understanding and decision-making. With a robust foundation in research, Swiss-Mile excels in translating artificial intelligence and robotics into real-world applications.

If you're interested in integrating mobile robotic solutions into your processes for applications in security, monitoring, construction, or logistics, Swiss-Mile invites you to join their beta program. Become part of the upcoming revolution in smart robotics—enhancing the safety and efficiency of your facilities. To get started, simply contact their sales team here.