Gravis Robotics has secured a EUR 21.16m funding round that runs against the grain of risk-off sentiment in industrial tech and the construction sector’s chronic digital inertia.
The Zurich-based construction robotics specialist, a 2022 spin-out from ETH Zurich, raised USD 23m (around EUR 21.16m) in a round co-led by UK deeptech investor IQ Capital and Zacua Ventures. Pear VC, Imad, Sunna Ventures, Armada Investment and building materials major Holcim also joined.
The capital will fund a global rollout of Gravis’ autonomous excavation systems, expand its team and deepen partnerships with construction groups, according to the company. For a three-year-old European robotics business, the size and calibre of the syndicate places Gravis at the upper end of the mid-market funding spectrum.
A sizeable bet in a hesitant category
Construction equipment has lagged other industrial segments in automation. Robotics and autonomy have penetrated logistics, manufacturing and warehousing at scale, while earthmoving and heavy civil works remain dominated by manual operation and fragmented digital adoption.
Gravis’ raise cuts against that pattern on several fronts:
- Ticket size: A EUR 21m round for a 2022-founded spin-out is ambitious in today’s more selective venture environment, especially for capital-intensive hardware.
- Stage vs. traction: Despite its age, Gravis reports deployments in seven countries across multiple continents, including live use on the Manchester Airport project—one of the first large-scale autonomous excavation deployments globally.
- Sector backdrop: Construction technology funding has cooled from 2021–22 peaks as investors rotate to asset-light software and AI. This round signals that robotics platforms with clear productivity metrics are still bankable.
Gravis claims its technology boosts on-site productivity by around 30% and improves safety by automating high-risk excavation tasks. Crucially, the system augments rather than replaces human operators, aligning with contractors’ need to address labour shortages and safety obligations without triggering workforce pushback.
Holcim’s move: strategic, not speculative
Holcim’s participation via its corporate venture arm is the clearest signal that this is more than a financial bet. The CHF 16.2bn net sales group has been vocal about using digitalisation and automation to reshape its operations. Backing Gravis gives Holcim early access to a technology that can materially impact project timelines, site safety and cost predictability.
For a global materials supplier, autonomous excavation is not a side show: it touches quarrying, infrastructure, and large-scale building projects where Holcim is already embedded. If Gravis’ systems scale, they could become part of a broader integrated, data-rich construction workflow that links design, materials, and site execution.
A contrarian template for European hardtech
The round stands out in the current European mid-market for three reasons:
- Hardware in favour again – selectively. While many investors have pulled back from robotics and heavy equipment, the Gravis syndicate shows that hardtech with quantifiable ROI and early global references can still command substantial capital.
- From lab to airport in three years. Moving from ETH Zurich spin-out to live deployment on a major airport project in such a short window is atypical in construction, where pilots often stall before commercial rollout.
- Human-centric autonomy. By positioning its systems as tools that enhance operators rather than replace them, Gravis sidesteps a major adoption barrier in a unionised, risk-averse industry.
For mid-market investors, the deal underlines that the bar for construction robotics is high but clear: global reference sites, measurable productivity gains and alignment with large incumbents’ strategic roadmaps. Gravis hits those markers earlier and more convincingly than most peers.
Risks and what to watch
Execution risk remains material. Scaling from a handful of flagship deployments to repeatable, multi-country rollouts will test Gravis’ ability to industrialise its product, manage support and navigate regulatory and safety regimes across markets.
Adoption risk is lower than for fully autonomous, worker-replacing systems, but not negligible. Contractors will need to integrate Gravis’ technology into existing workflows and equipment fleets, and project owners will demand proven uptime and liability clarity.
The funding round, however, gives Gravis a meaningful runway to address these challenges. With deeptech specialist IQ Capital and sector heavyweight Holcim at the table, the company has both capital and strategic cover to push autonomous excavation from proof-of-concept to mainstream tool.
If it succeeds, this deal will be remembered as an early marker that construction robotics moved from curiosity to core infrastructure—starting not in Silicon Valley, but from a Swiss university lab.